OALT/ABO Salary & Library Profile Survey, 2012 A big “Thank you!” to the 306 members and non-members who completed the latest salary survey. This high response is undoubtedly a benefit of an online survey. In addition, 11 respondents completed the French-language survey. 1. Library environment The 288 respondents who identified a library or resource centre as their workplace are fairly evenly spread across the various library types, in a similar distribution to our 2009 survey. Several respondents work parttime in a library environment and part-time in non-library jobs. One third of special library respondents work in a health or medical library, and one quarter work in a law library. Respondents are evenly spread across library type special academic 2012 govt 2009 2007 schools public 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% public schools govt academic special 2012 19% 23% 10% 27% 20% 2009 21% 23% 11% 25% 20% 2007 12% 28% 15% 17% 28% Compared to 2009, the same proportion work alone and small libraries. But more work in very large libraries (13% compared to 4% in 2009): 2012 - Library size 50+ 2009 - Library size 50+ one one 10 to 50 10 to 50 2 to 10 2 to 10 1 2. Involvement in associations 228 OALT/ABO members responded to the survey (Table 1). One quarter of responses came from individuals who are not members of OALT/ABO. “Thank you!” to those members who forwarded the survey to friends and colleagues, and to non-members who responded – the resulting analysis is a benefit to all Library Technicians in Ontario. The non-member respondents come from all types of library, and this year an unusually high percentage came from academic libraries. Table 1: Library type by membership status Type of Library 2012 respondents Total Public Library Schools Government Academic Special 58 70 32 84 62 Total 306 2009 respondents Members Nonmembers 46 52 21 55 45 14 18 11 33 18 *72% Total *28% Genre de bibliothèque Members Nonmembers 31 36 16 36 31 20 22 11 26 20 68% 157 11 13 5 10 11 Publique Scolaire Gouvernementale Universitaire/collégiale Spéciale 32% (*53 respondents skipped the question about memberships, and 36 skipped the question about library type.) OALT/ABO member respondents listed reported 28 other library and information associations in which they hold membership. More than one-third of OALT/ABO members respondents also belong to the Ontario Library Association (OLA). Over the last few years, OALT/ABO has worked with OLA to offer additional benefits to Ontario’s library technicians, including technician oriented sessions at OLA Super Conference and a column in Access, OLA’s member magazine. Only about half of OALT/ABO member respondents have attended an OALT/ABO or OLA conference: Only slightly more than half of OALT/ABO members attend our conference programs OALT/ABO conference 57% OLA conference 53% 0% 20% 40% 2 60% 80% 100% 3. Education and experience Respondents are well-educated – 42% of respondents have a degree / diploma as well as the Library Technician qualification (Table 2). Table 2: Education Level 2012 2009 percent percent 44% 51% Graduate Library Technician with other degrees/diplomas 42% 46% Student 6% 4% Total 325 157 Education Level Graduate Library Technician Niveau scolaire Bibliotechnicien(ne) gradué(e) Bibliotechnicien(ne) gradué(e) avec d’autres diplômes Étudiant(e) Graduate LTs with other degrees or diplomas - a well-educated group special 40% academic 37% govt 31% school 52% public 34% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Library / Information Work Experience Table 3: Years of Experience Years of Experience 2012 Respondents Number Less than 1 year /moins d’un ans 1 – 2 years / ans 3 – 5 years / ans 6 – 10 years / ans 11 – 20 years / ans 21 – 25 years / ans 26+ years / ans Total 21 24 36 39 97 44 62 Percent 6% 7% 11% 12% 30% 13% 20% 325 2009 Respondents Number 3 9 17 23 47 16 42 157 3 Percent 2% 6% 11% 15% 30% 10% 27% Survey respondents have many years of experience in library & information work, with 75% reporting more than 5 years’ experience, and one-third (33.2%) reporting more than 20 years’ experience (Table 3). A new question this year related to retirement. 13% of respondents expect to retire in 4 years or less. More than one third of respondents (35.7%) expect to retire within the next 10 years. 4. Job Responsibilities & Activities In all, there were 140 unique job titles. In Table 4, these have been grouped to show the most common forms. Table 4: Job titles Job title Library technician / bibliotechnicien(ne) 126 41% “Technician” in title 67 22% “Assistant” in title 33 11% Management: Librarian, Head, Coordinator, Supervisor, Manager, Administrator, Team Leader, etc. 34 11% Number of unique job titles: 140 Job Activities Respondents were asked to indicate their activities, under the headings of Technical Services, Public & Research Services, and Management & Administration. LIT students will appreciate an understanding of the skills that they will find most useful in the workplace. Respondents were asked to indicate primary responsibilities, but it is clear that most respondents indicated every single activity, not just their key activities. For example, in technical services, 75 “additional” responsibilities were identified; in public services, 38 more were identified, and in management/administrative areas, 18 more were identified. We will study these additions for new areas of responsibility. And in future surveys, we will rephrase these questions in order to have more meaningful analysis. 4 Technical services circulation catalogiuing book processing & repair acquisitions serials management inter library loan data entry/data admin 2012 records mgt & maintenance 2009 database design & management 2007 content management scanning/OCR technical w riting internet/w eb design & maintenance computer/LAN admin intranet design & maintenance 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% Almost all libraries are automated (92%), and many different systems were named. While LIT programs can’t train students in all possible systems, it is important for all LTs to be flexible enough to move between systems, as libraries upgrade. Table 5. Most frequently mentioned library systems Most frequently mentioned systems SirsiDynix (unspecified) 14% Horizon 14% Symphony/Workflows 13% Follett: Destiny 12% Voyager 6% Evergreen 5% InMagic 5% Many respondents did not report the name of their system, or did not know it. However in the event of a job change, it would be important to know which system(s) you have experience with. 5 Public services ready ref & general public enquiry online db research internet research detailed ref/info analysis 2012 end-user training 2009 PR/marketing 2007 internal pubns or new sletter brochure/sign design CD-ROM research SDI/info filtering 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Even individuals with less than 5 years experience have some management responsibilities, but as might be expected, the respondents with the most experience (21+ years) are the most likely to have management responsibilities. Management responsibilities purchases training / mentoring 2012 strategic planning 2009 financial 2007 project management supervising & hiring 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Fewer than half of respondents (43%) have supervisory responsibility. Respondents at all levels of experience report supervisory responsibilities, however supervisory responsibility is somewhat a factor of experience (Table 6). 6 Table 6. Staff / volunteer supervision by experience Supervisory responsibilities Years of library experience Percent 0-10 years 11-20 years 21+ years 31% 31% 39% Total 53% 5. Salaries Of the 306 individuals who completed the salary survey, 287 (94%) provided salary information. 213 (70%) respondents reported having full-time jobs. The median (midpoint) salary of all respondents is about $46,000 – the same as in our 2009 survey. Median full-time salary is about $46,000 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% <$28k $28k$32k $32k$36k $36k$40k $40k$44k $44k$48k $48k$52k $52k$56k $56k$62k >$62k However, salaries for respondents in school libraries seem to reflect their “ten-month year”. This year our survey again allowed respondents to provide information about more than one job. Four individuals reported having more than one full-time job; 61 reported hourly-paid part-time work, and 11 work on contract. 7 As our job market changes and formerly unusual job situations become more common, we want to make this part of the salary survey easier to complete. The addition of the “second” and “third” job options was handled easily online, but the analysis is very complicated. For example, it made reporting by “library type” impossible. We’ll be looking at ways to report this data in a meaningful way in future. 61 respondents work at hourly rates; 57% of these respondents report wage rates of more than $20.00/hour. 90% of respondents working are paid bi-weekly or semi-monthly. Benefits are also fairly standard, with almost all of employed respondents reporting receiving extended medical insurance, prescription coverage, dental insurance and life or disability insurance. 59% of respondents have their remuneration set by a union. A handful of respondents negotiate their salaries themselves. 11-20 yrs experience 0-10 yrs experience 9% 15% 8% 13% 17% 39% 8% 28% 5% 29% 23% 6% 11-20 yrs experience 15% 8% 13% <32k 8% 32k-40k 40k-48k 48k-56k 28% 29% 56k+ hourly rate Consistent with previous years, respondents with least experience are most likely to be paid at hourly rates. And not surprisingly, the highest salaries (>$56,000) are earned by the respondents with most experience. But low full-time salaries (<$40,000) are the lot of more than 20% of respondents, at every level of experience. 8 Slightly more than half of respondents (52%) receive a performance evaluation annually or semi-annual (Table 7). Almost one third of respondents report they receive no performance evaluations, thus missing an important opportunity to convince management of the value of their work. An additional 9% receive performance evaluations less frequently than annually, and 10% are not sure. Table 7: Performance evaluations Performance evaluations Annually 128 43% Semi-annually 27 9% Other 26 9% No performance evaluation 86 29% Not sure 31 10% 292 Thank you / Merci ! Additional information provided by respondents but not reported here is used by the Executive of OALT/ABO in strategic planning for the association, and by the Conference Planning team to guide the choice of sessions offered. Thank you to all the members of library technician profession who responded to the 2012 salary survey. We hope you find this survey useful. Please contact OALT/ABO (see http://www.oaltabo.on.ca ) with your suggestions for questions that might be included in future surveys. Lisa Eschli, Maggie Weaver and Donna Brown OALT/ABO April, 2012 9