AALL
Special Committee on Law Librarian Compensation
Report
to the AALL Executive Board
May 23, 2003
In the Executive Board’s meeting
April 2002, the Board approved a motion
to reconstitute for an additional year
(through July 2003) the Special Committee
on Law Librarian Compensation (originally
formed in 2001). This report will summarize
the accomplishments of the Special Committee
since April 2002. This report will also
make recommendations to the Executive
Board relating to the compensation issue.
-
Activities and Accomplishments
of the Special Committee on Law Librarian
Compensation during 2002-03:
- The Special Committee provided
the Altman Weil firm with revised
law librarian job descriptions to
be used in that firm’s annual
Survey of Law Firm Economics.
- The Special Committee provided
Altman Weil with revised job descriptions
for law library personnel for the
forthcoming revised edition of that
firm’s publication, Job
Descriptions for Law Firms, Corporate
Law Departments and Government Agencies.
- The Special Committee submitted
comments to the AALL Task Force
to Review the Biennial Salary Survey.
- The Special Committee, working
with Altman Weil, helped draft the
AALL/Altman Weil Compensation Satisfaction
Survey, which survey was distributed
electronically to AALL members during
February 2003; the results of this
survey will be presented to AALL
members at a program at the 2003
Annual Meeting in Seattle.[1]
- The Chair of the Special Committee
served as liaison to the American
Library Association’s Task
Force on Better Salaries and Pay
Equity, attending the 2002 ALA Annual
Meeting in Atlanta and the 2003
Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia,
and participated in the activities
of the Research Working Group of
the Task Force.
- The Special Committee has coordinated
a program concerning law librarian
compensation that will take place
at the 2003 Annual Meeting in Seattle,
at which Virginia Grant of Altman
Weil, Mitch Freedman of the American
Library Association, and the Chair
of the Special Committee will speak.
- Recommendations
It is well documented that an insufficient
number of persons are entering the field
of librarianship to replace those scheduled
to retire within the next several years.
Entry into the profession of law librarianship
requires significant and costly training.
Law librarians’ remuneration is
lower than that of other professions that
require similar levels of educational
investment. The low compensation associated
with law librarianship is correlated with,
and is a likely cause, of the projected
future shortages that will result from
inadequate entry into the profession.
The success of future initiatives of AALL,
including those relating to access to
and preservation of legal information,
will depend on an adequate number of members
who share the professional values embodied
by AALL. Apart from AALL’s future
well-being as an association, access to
legal information is essential to a democratic
and transparent political culture, and
law librarians play a central role in
maintaining public access to legal information.
Because adequate entry of properly trained
professionals into law librarianship is
central not only to the future well-being
of this association, but also to the proper
functioning of our democracy, the issue
of law librarian compensation should be
recognized by AALL as a problem not only
warranting significant attention, but
indeed, as a fundamental matter of information
policy.
In addition, AALL members overwhelmingly
believe that law librarians are not equitably
compensated. In the AALL/Altman Weil Compensation
Satisfaction Survey, when asked the question,
“Do you consider current levels
of compensation in the law librarian profession
overall to be satisfactory given the amount
of training required for the profession,”
85.6% of survey respondents answered “no.”[2]
In light of the foregoing, the Special
Committee of Law Librarian Compensation
submits the following recommendations
to the Executive Board:
Recommendation 1. The 2000-2005
Strategic Plan of AALL, under “Outcome
C,” states that AALL will “regularly
compile detailed compensation analyses
comparing law librarians’ salaries,
education and contributions to those of
comparable professionals in different
types of organizations, firms, schools
and courts.” To date, no such comparative
salary-equity studies have been conducted
by AALL (to the Special Committee’s
knowledge). Such salary-equity studies
would be vitally helpful to law librarians
who negotiate salaries in settings where
pay equity is a policy goal or, as in
the case of some states, a legal requirement.
It is imperative that the AALL Executive
Board act to ensure that the association
lives up to its promise in the 2000-2005
Strategic Plan to conduct such salary-equity
studies. The Special Committee recommends
hiring an outside consultant with expertise
in conducting such studies, or placing
this responsibility with the new staff
position proposed in Recommendation 2
below.
Recommendation 2: In the report
considered by the Executive Board in April
2002, the Special Committee as originally
constituted proposed that AALL create
a new staff position for a Marketing/Public
Relations Coordinator, to coordinate a
campaign to educate appropriate decision
makers concerning the value of law librarians
to firms and other institutions, and to
oversee efforts aimed at improving law
librarian salaries. In its April 2002
meeting, the Executive Board determined
that financial resources at that time
were unavailable for this recommendation.
The current Special Committee renews the
prior recommendation that a new staff
position be created, and urges the current
Executive Board to authorize AALL to invest
in a new staff position to undertake,
oversee and coordinate the association’s
activities relating to marketing, public
relations, and advocacy relating to compensation.
Recommendation 3: Improving law
librarian compensation is a matter of
vital importance to the future of AALL.
This issue requires sustained attention
by the association over fluctuating business
cycles, changes in the legal services
and legal information marketplace, and
changes in employers’ perceptions
of law librarians. In order to ensure
such sustained attention, the Executive
Board should create a new standing committee,
the Committee on the Economic Status of
Law Librarianship. The standing committee’s
charge could include activities such as:
- Monitoring the work of other associations
that share an interest in compensation
and pay equity for librarians and related
professions (including such associations
as the American Library Association,
the ALA Allied Professional Association,
the Special Libraries Association, the
American Association of University Professors,
the National Committee on Pay Equity,
AFSCME, and other like-minded groups),
and, where appropriate, transmitting
ideas, techniques, and policy suggestions
relating to compensation and pay equity
to AALL and its members;
- Developing a database on “best
practices” relating to improving
compensation of law librarians in the
various types of work settings (private
law firms, academic law libraries, state/county/court/government
law libraries, etc.), including marketing,
public relations, negotiation skills,
advocacy, and publications;
- Monitoring scholarly developments
in the fields of labor economics, sociology,
human resources management, policy analysis,
and related fields for ideas, findings
and developments relevant to advancing
the economic well-being of law librarians;
- Evaluating the economic impact on
law librarians of new forms of legal
information distribution and changes
in the regulation of the legal profession
(e.g., multidisciplinary practice),
and determining how law librarians’
skills can be leveraged in changing
environments; and
- Conducting the salary-equity studies
referred to in the 2000-2005 Strategic
Plan (see Recommendation 1 above), in
the event that the Executive Board decides
that they should be performed by an
AALL committee rather than by an outside
consultant or AALL staff.
* * *
Lastly, the members of the Special Committee
on Law Librarian Compensation wish to
express their appreciation to the Executive
Board for the opportunity to serve the
association.
[1]
The Chair of the Special Committee has
forwarded an electronic version of the
Compensation Satisfaction Survey Results
to the Executive Director and has asked
that it be made available to the Executive
Board.
[2]
Compensation Satisfaction Survey Results
at 15 (Response to Question 14).
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