Library Worklife

Spotlight

Virginia Library Association’s Paraprofessional Forum

By Jim Rettig

Every spring the Virginia Library Association holds its Paraprofessional Forum. It regularly attracts 500 registrants, not all of them from Virginia. The Forum is a two-day conference for paraprofessionals with a keynote speaker, a series of concurrent programs, a banquet, etc. Last fall I contacted the organizers of the 2005 VLAPF and asked if I could be on the program for one of the concurrent sessions to do an update and information session on current ALA and ALA-APA activities. My offer was accepted.

On May 25, I was pleased that, even though it was the Forum’s second last concurrent sessions time slot, my session attracted an audience of about 50! I first discussed ALA activities, focusing on the process for developing the Association’s new strategic plan and the membership survey. I talked about the current membership initiative for library support staff to join ALA, the Library Support Staff Interests Round Table, and either RUSA or ALCTS; the upcoming support staff membership category; and the developing advocates program.

I gave a simplified explanation of ALA-APA’s creation and then discussed its finances, governance, and its current and planned programs. There were questions about APA, mostly about how to learn more about it and how to subscribe to Library Worklife. Two major issues emerged from the Q&A sessions that were relevant to ALA-APA:

Salary surveys-they very much want ALA-APA to conduct support staff salary surveys. They are concerned about how to factor in cost of living differences.
Certification-they see a significant relationship between this issue and the salary survey. If the salary survey is to be useful there needs to be a way to compare positions. They see certification as a potential way to standardize job titles. They also see it as a way to create a nationally recognized career ladder that would be useful to support staff when they move to a new geographic location or simply as a way to have advancement opportunities within their organizations.

The group very much supports ALA-APA in concept. This group in Virginia demonstrated support staff’s deep interest in these issues. At other conferences and within their libraries, librarians and support staff can have fruitful discussions about how they can work together to help ALA-APA meet its goals of improving the salaries and status of all library workers.

Jim Rettig is University Librarian at Boatwright Memorial Library, University of Richmond.