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College & Research Libraries News

Academic librarian salaries

By Mary Jo Lynch

Director

ALA Office for Research

Salary data as reported in the CUPA 1986-1987 Administrative Compensation Survey.

The College and University Personnel Associa- tion (CUPA) has conducted a survey of administrative compensation each year for the past ten years. Selection of surveyed positions is based on an analysis of those positions common to most higher education institutions. The 1986-1987 survey¹ reports on 99 “primary” positions, including “Director, Library Services” and 60 “secondary positions” including “Circulation Librarian,” “Acquisitions Librarian,” “Technical Services Librarian,” “Public Services Librarian,” and “Reference Librarian. Considerably more information is provided on the primary positions, for which salaries are summarized for control (i.e public or private), three levels of program (i.e. university, 4-year college, 2-year college), several ranges of enrollment, and several ranges of budget size. For secondary positions, data are available only for two different types of control and three levels of program. Tables in this article were created manually by selecting data on librarian salaries wherever they appear in the CUPA report. Permission of CUPA to use their data in this way is gratefully acknowledged.

The 1986-1987 questionnaire was sent to 3,190 higher education institutions on a list provided by the National Center for Education Statistics (now the Center for Education Statistics). A total of 1,609 usable responses were received—51 % of the institutions surveyed. Salary data shown on tables in the CUPA report and in the accompanying tables indicate the median and the interquartile range for each position. Librarians may find it interesting to examine the report itself in order to compare their salaries with other administrators in the same type of institution.

The introduction to the CUPA report contains a useful description of those statistical concepts:

•The median is the middle value in an array of all salaries for the position; half of the salaries are lower than the median and half are higher. The median is considered a more reliable measure than the mean/average because it minimizes the effect of extremely high and low salaries.

•The first quartile (Q1 in the tables) divides salaries below the median into two 25 percent segments.

•The third quartile (Q3 in the tables) divides salaries above the median into two 25 percent segments.

•Q1 and Q3, therefore, mark the interquartile range; half of all salaries—the middle 50 percent— fall within this range.

This means, for example, that if all library director salaries were arrayed from lowest to highest, the salary in the middle position, the median, would be $37,500—the first figure shown in the top row on Table 1. Another way of looking at the same array is to note that half of the salaries fall within a range bounded by $28,620—the first quartile (midway between the lowest salary and the median) and $48,294—the third quartile (midway between the median and the highest salary. The quartiles also show that 25 percent of academic library directors earn less than $28,620 and 25 percent earn more than $48,294.

TABLE 1. Salaries paid to Director, Library Services: Overview

	Med	Ql	Q3	N
All Institutions	$37,500	$28,620	$48,294	1,182
Public Institutions	$42,400	$34,977	$53,935	584
Private Institutions	$32,000	$25,000	$41,000	597
Private Independent Institutions	$36,000	$26,600	$46,350	315
Private Religious Institutions	$28,883	$24,100	$34,800	282

TABLE 2. Salaries paid to Director, Library Services: Universities

	Med	Ql	Q3	N
All Universities	$50,000	$40,245	$61,974	382
Public Universities by Enrollment
4,999 or less	$40,000	$36,754	$45,000	69
5,000 to 9,999	$48,624	$43,908	$53,316	74
10,000 to 19,999	$58,440	$53,935	$64,000	71
20,000 or more	$69,500	$63,936	$78,696	40
Private Universities by Enrollment
4,999 or less	$38,584	$33,000	$45,795	76
5,000 or more	$60,100	$51,700	$71,721	51
Public Universities by Budget Range
$24,999,999 or less	$39,650	$36,081	$44,550	63
$25,000,000-$49,999,999	$47,335	$41,830	$49,283	56
$50,000,000-$99,999,999	$55,350	$50,434	$60,000	54
$100,000,000-$149,999,999	$60,000	$55,400	$63,864	18
$150,000,000 or more	$67,600	$61,500	$76,400	63
Private Universities by Budget Range
$24,999,999 or less	$33,000	$28,404	$39,750	42
$25,000,000-$49,999,999	$44,000	$38,400	$50,650	32
$50,000,000-$99,999,999	$52,817	$46,350	$58,200	22
$100,000,000-$ 149,999,999	$54,900	$46,565	$56,500	5
$150,000,000 or more	$71,500	$64,250	$85,000	26

TABLE 3. Salaries paid to Director, Library Services: 4-Year Colleges

	Med	Ql	Q3	N
All 4-Year Colleges	$32,000	$25,270	$40,000	455
Public 4-Year Colleges by Enrollment
4,999 or less	$39,000	$32,100	$44,578	72
5,000 or more	$53,671	$47,156	$56,054	20
Private 4-Year Colleges by Enrollment
999 or less	$24,810	$21,523	$28,890	168
1,000 or more	$35,020	$29,400	$41,872	195
Public 4-Year Colleges by Budget Range
$9,999,999 or less	$32,484	$30,220	$35,889	25
$10,000,000 or more	$46,114	$39,200	$52,060	67
Private 4-Year Colleges by Budget Range
$4,999,999 or less	$22,458	$19,000	$25,369	77
$5,000,000-$14,999,999	$29,000	$25,000	$33,800	199
$15,000,000 or more	$41,791	$35,701	$48,000	87

TABLE 4. Salaries paid to Director, Library Services: 2-Year Colleges

	Med	Ql	Q3	N
All 2-Year Colleges	$33,753	$26,933	$39,477	218
All Private 2-Year Colleges	$23,000	$19,899	$27,480	33
2-Year Technical Institutes	$30,350	$26,952	$35,640	21
Public 2-Year Colleges by Enrollment
999 or less	$31,500	$26,874	$35,320	43
1,000-2,499	$32,450	$26,078	$38,243	66
2,500-4,999	$38,885	$35,343	$45,040	39
5,000-9,999	$42,106	$36,442	$46,054	23
10,000 or more	$39,706	$37,838	$49,641	14
2-Year Colleges by Budget Range
$4,999,999 or less	$27,225	$23,000	$32,200	73
$5,000,000-$9,999,999	$32,290	$26,600	$36,857	70
$10,000,000-$14,999,999	$38,885	$34,439	$44,453	26
$15,000,000 or more	$41,631	$36,900	$46,975	49

TABLE 5. Secondary Positions in University Libraries

	Med	Ql	Q3	N
Circulation Librarian
All Universities	$25,053	$20,800	$29,376	236
Public	$25,562	$21,892	$29,675	166
Private	$23,500	$18,540	$28,900	70
Acquisitions Librarian
All Universities	$29,238	$24,824	$34,420	258
Public	$29,455	$26,000	$34,420	187
Private	$27,555	$22,580	$33,629	70
Technical Services Librarian
All Universities	$32,868	$26,184	$40,000	254
Public	$34,104	$28,416	$40,870	168
Private	$27,514	$21,630	$35,499	85
Public Services Librarian
All Universities	$34,053	$28,185	$41,130	191
Public	$35,004	$29,000	$42,336	131
Private	$30,650	$25,650	$38,500	49
Reference Librarian
All Universities	$28,518	$23,727	$33,625	297
Public	$29,610	$25,282	$34,664	201
Private	$25,600	$20,360	$31,748	95

It is also important to know that respondents were asked to observe the following specifications in reporting their data:

•Salaries are those in effect during the Fall of 1986.

•Salaries are at an annualized, full-time rate; they reflect only actual cash earnings, excluding any services contributed without charge.

•Enrollment and budget figures are for the operating year 1986-1987.

•Enrollment is stated in terms of equivalent full-time students.

•Budgets include amounts for current education and general operations, including research funds. Budgets do not include amounts for student aid, auxiliary enterprises, service departments, construction, and similar activities.

Definitions of the librarian positions as given on the CUPA survey instrument are as follows:

•Director, Library Services: Directs the activities of all institutional libraries. Functions typically include selection and direction of professional staff, acquisitions, technical services, audiovisual, and special collections.

•Circulation Librarian: Senior person responsible for control of lending and shelving operations.

•Acquisitions Librarian: Senior person responsible for collection development including order and receipt of books, periodicals, etc.

•Technical Services Librarian: Senior person for planning and management of library services involving processing, bibliographic control, cataloging, binding, and repair, etc.

TABLE 6. Secondary Positions in 4-Year Colleges

	Med	Ql	Q3	N
Circulation Librarian
All Colleges	$20,441	$15,900	$24,485	154
Public	$22,809	$19,272	$27,398	38
Private	$19,740	$15,288	$23,760	116
Acquisitions Librarian
All Colleges	$23,300	$19,230	$27,500	157
Public	$25,358	$21,645	$31,473	52
Private	$21,331	$18,331	$26,050	105
Technical Services Librarian
All Colleges	$23,485	$19,024	$27,848	237
Public	$28,186	$23,724	$32,448	52
Private	$22,000	$18,127	$26,064	185
Public Services Librarian
All Colleges	$24,357	$19,425	$28,200	129
Public	$28,192	$24,600	$36,083	35
Private	$22,256	$18,600	$26,845	94
Reference Librarian
All Colleges	$22,475	$19,116	$27,664	240
Public	$25,764	$21,585	$31,523	59
Private	$21,500	$18,200	$26,000	181

TABLE 7. Secondary Positions in 2-Year Colleges

	Med	Ql	Q3	N
Circulation Librarian
Public	$28,556	$19,000	$34,213	31
Acquisitions Librarian
Public	$28,221	$22,032	$31,693	35
Technical Services Librarian
Public	$27,915	$23,227	$34,503	69
Public Services Librarian
Public	$26,203	$21,000	$33,257	40
Reference Librarian
Public	$27,063	$23,544	$34,002	64

•Public Services Librarian: Senior person responsible for planning and management of library services involving interaction with patrons (lending, orientation, bibliographic instruction, audiovisual services, etc.).

•Reference Librarian: Senior person responsible for developing and managing reference materials and assisting users in researching problems, conducting bibliographic searches, etc. ■ ■

Notes

1. Richard C. Creal, Jan P. Miller, and John M. Toller, 1986-1987 Administrative Compensation Survey (Washington, D.C.: College and University Personnel Association, 1987). Available from CUPA, 11 Dupont Circle, Suite 120, Washington, DC 20036-1250. Price to members $50; price to non-members who participated in study $125; price to all others $200. ISBN-0-910402-27-2.