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Balancing Acts
By Dr. Carla Hayden, President, ALA and Executive Director, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, MD
Library Worklife represents a significant contribution from ALA-APA to support everyone’s development and retention of library workers in any library setting. The positive responses will be demonstrated in another first on Tuesday, April 20, for National Library Workers Day, during this year’s National Library Week celebrations and activities. The day will emphasize the important role that all library workers play in bringing information and resources to our public and the need to make sure they are compensated fairly and competitively. Although the major focus of the entire week will be on libraries, the National Workers Day gives us an opportunity to single out what is often overlooked in the public’s awareness of the value of libraries—the people who make it happen. MORE
Alternative Compensation Plans
Skills-Based Pay, Gain Sharing, Temporary Pay
By Paula Singer
In this issue, skills/knowledge-based pay, gain sharing, and temporary pay are described. In tough economic times, creativity is required to give employees incentives that recognize excellence while keeping the budget balanced. MORE
The Visible Library Worker
By Judith Siess, BA, MA, MSLIS
What Can You Do to Become More Visible?
Begin by asking what value you provide to the library and its customers. I think it is important to think about the people who come into the library as customers, not patrons. Customers of public and school, and some academic, libraries have prepaid for their services-with their tax, and tuition, dollars. All customers pay for your services with their time.
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Negotiating Isn’t Just for “The Donald”
By Vicki Burger and Valerie Stern
One of the organizers of Reaching Forward, Illinois’ annual conference for library support staff, recently commented that they wanted to offer a negotiating skills workshop this year. It sounded promising to me and I offered to look into it. While I had thought that my communication skills were at least “above average,” as I researched the fine art of effective negotiations I quickly realized how many opportunities each of us walk away from on a daily basis! MORE
Continuum of Library Education
Western Council of State Libraries, Inc.
By Catherine Helmick
In small, rural public libraries, the library director is usually not a person who moves into the community from somewhere else; in other words, she or he is not usually a library school graduate who moves into the community as a result of being hired as the public library director. The director of a small, rural library is most often an individual from the community who is connected to the community through personal history. In November 2002, a fast response survey revealed that in the 21 states of the Western Council region an average of 66% of the public libraries are managed by directors who do not hold a graduate level library degree. MORE
National Library Workers Day Is Tuesday, April 20th!
Representative Major Owens Submits a NLWD Resolution
Libraries Work Because We Do! Get Your Buttons Now!
Order form (.pdf) (.doc)
Subscribe to Library Worklife Today!
Library Worklife FAQ
For updates on the Fair Labor Standards Act.
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Fair Compensation Under the Fair Labor Standards Act
By Paula M. Singer & Linda Goldberg
Transport back in time to the world of work in 1930s America. Emerging slowly from the Great Depression, people are leaving the farms in droves to look for any work possible. People are so desperate for work that they bid for hourly work, each person underbidding the next until their wage rate is at pennies per hour.
Out of this set of circumstances, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938. Since that time, the provisions of the Act have remained essentially unchanged. MORE
The World Is Changing: Why Aren’t We?
Recruiting Minorities to Librarianship
By Jenifer Grady and Tracie Hall
Few would argue that there is a need to recruit into the field of librarianship, at all levels. Several sources report the dearth of library workers, such as the 2001 survey conducted by ALA’s Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment (HRDR). Respondents, members of the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) cited difficulty in filling positions in technical services, children’s/youth services, and managers. In the space given for comments, recruitment of diverse candidates was one clear theme.
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Preparation for the New ALA-APA Support Staff Salary Survey
One of ALA-APA’s first publications will be a Support Staff Salary Survey, which will replace and extend the survey that had been conducted every three years by Library Mosaics, which was featured in the January issue of Library Worklife.
What alternative compensation plans has your library tried?
Survey Results (.pdf) from Library Worklife, Volume 1, Number 3
Who Wants to Be a Librarian?
New Bureau of Labor Statistics Listing
Here Is the Earnings Section of the BLS Report on Librarians
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Two Little Words That Make a Big Difference: Thank You.
New Ideas for National Library Workers Day Celebrations
National Library Workers Day is a wake-up call for some libraries and library systems, but many honor their workers on a regular basis. In this article you will read about traditional library service awards, as well as financial awards and creative staff-bonding and cost-cutting celebrations. Many of the items on the NLWD Ideas Web Site are from already scheduled employee recognition programs. See what seeds are being planted across the country because of NLWD and which ones have already taken root and are blooming. There will be no mention of those that have withered away due to lack of funding.
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