2002 SALARY SURVEY

Introduction

The New England Chapter of the Association of College and Research Libraries has again conducted a salary survey of librarians in four-year undergraduate academic institutions in the New England region. This edition, as in the past, covers only academic libraries that are not members of the Association of Research Libraries; data for those libraries is available in ARL's Annual Salary Survey.

The same basic survey questions that were used in previous ACRL/NEC salary surveys was used to gather data for this report but all data was gathered using an online version of the form for the first time. All institutions included in the previous surveys, as well as other known academic libraries in the New England region who are not members of ARL, were sent emails asking them to participate in the survey. Those libraries that had not completed the survey by the deadline were sent follow-up emails requesting their participation. Fifty-three libraries responded to the survey this year. This was disappointing since it is about 21% fewer than the survey conducted in 2000.

Twenty-eight of the libraries that participated in the 2000 survey did not complete the online forms for the 2002 survey. Eleven libraries that did not contribute to the 2000 survey participated in this year's. A few participants had technical difficulties or problems inputting their data. They emailed me and we worked out the problems. Perhaps those that didn't participate this year found the online form more difficult to use than the hard copy forms used in the past.

Based on this first experience using the online form, I believe I will be able to simplify the form somewhat for future surveys. I believe the data submitted was much more accurate overall than was used in past ACRL/NEC salary surveys since the data did not involve a middle person translating from the hard copy forms to digital data. I am in hopes changes in the online will attract more to participate in future surveys. If anyone has any suggestions for improving the online form, please feel free to contact me.
Data for this year's survey includes five hundred forty-three full-time filled positions and seventy-one part-time filled positions in fifty-three libraries and seven vacant full-time positions. The data has been reported in the same basic format that has been used in previous years except that results for full-time and part-time positions are reported in separate tables. Part-time positions had been converted to full-time equivalent positions in the past. Separate tables for each category should provide more accurate information about each in this and future surveys.

Over the years Table F and Table I have been eliminated from the report. These tables have not been included in this report and the same labeling order has been maintained for the remaining tables. No salary data is published for categories with fewer than four persons, in order to protect individual confidentiality.

Analysis of the data was accomplished using Microsoft Excel (Version 4.0) and StatView (Version 4.1) on a Macintosh computer. Tables for this report were also using DreamWeaver.

The average salary for full-time four-year academic librarians is $52,049 as compared to $47,372 in the 2000 survey. This is an increase of 8.99% over the two-year period. The median salary of full-time four-year academic librarians is $47,990 and the standard deviation (S.D.) for all reported full-timme salaries is $16,258. Further analysis shows that the salaries are positively skewed (1.36). Since the part-time salaries were not included as full-time equivalence, might account for a slightly larger increase in the mean and median full-time salaries. The average number of years of experience for full-time librarians decreased very slightly from 16.15 in 2000, to 16.14 (S.D.=10.00). The median number of years of experience remained the same as in 2000 at 16.00.

The average hourly rate for part-time four-year academic librarians is $20.67 per hour. The median hourly rate of part-time four-year academic librarians is $19.84 and the standard deviation (S.D.) is $5.61. The hourly rates for part-time librarians are positively skewed (1.24). The average number of years of experience for part-time librarians 14.61 (S.D.=9.87). The median number of years of experience for part-time librarians is 13.00. The number of minorities in positions in full-time four-year academic libraries has increased from twenty-eight to thirty-eight. Minorities make up 7.7% of the filled positions reported in the survey (up 1.22% from 2000). The average (12.87) and the median (12.00) number of years of experience for the full-time minority four-year academic librarians are substantially less than those reported for the overall positions. The salary of the minority librarians ($55,745) is again greater than the overall average, and this year the median ($50,600) is also greater than the overall median. In 2000 the median for minority librarians was less than the overall average. The average salaries for minorities have increased by 5.25%. This is less than the 8.99% increase experienced by all librarians in this study. The standard deviation for full-time minority salaries is $18,833 and a positive skew of 1.552 is indicated. An increase in ten full-time minority positions over the past two years indicates that ACRL libraries are continuing their efforts to attract minority candidates for positions in their libraries, especially since the overall participation in the survey has decreased.

Only four minority librarians were reported as having part-time positions. The average hourly rate paid the librarians is $15.67 per hour with a standard deviation of $.52. The median rate is $15.25 per hour. A positive skew of .99 is shown. The part-time hourly wages for minority librarians appears to be substantially less than the overall rates for librarians in the New England states.

I would like to acknowledge the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies (GSLIS) at the University of Rhode Island for its support in this project. I would also like to thank T.J. Sondermann, former GSLIS graduate assistant and presently a Reference Librarian at Wheaton College, who designed the website and online forms used in this project. Finally, I want to extend my appreciation to the Board of ACRL/NEC for their assistance with this survey.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

C. Herbert Carson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
Rodman Hall
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI 02881
(401) 874-4646
E-mail: chcarson@uri.edu

For more information about this site or survey, contact the webmaster
Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
Rodman Hall, 94 West Alumni Avenue, Suite 2, Kingston, RI 02281-0815
File last updated: Thursday, August 08, 2002
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