Special Libraries

AFL-CIO fact sheet indicates that a quarter of American librarians are union members

November 2018

American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) Department for Professional Employees recently released a fact sheet exploring, among other topics, library staff in the workforce, issues of pay and pay equity, and librarian representation in unions. This fact sheet uses data from a variety of sources, but draws primarily from the U.S. […]

99% of CTBL survey respondents rate CTBL’s services as “excellent” or “good”

April 2017

Have you ever wondered how Coloradans who are unable to read standard print access library services? With funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the Colorado Talking Book Library (CTBL) is able to provide these patrons with audiobooks, large print books, Braille materials, descriptive videos, and more to ensure that every Coloradan is […]

98% of CTBL survey respondents rate their satisfaction with CTBL services as “excellent” or “good”

December 2015

The results are in for the 2014 Colorado Talking Book Library (CTBL) Patron Satisfaction Survey, which seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the library and overall satisfaction with its services. Highlights from the survey are detailed in our new Fast Facts report and previously published Closer Look report. CTBL provides free library services, including recorded books, […]

Consistent with past years, nearly all of the 2014 CTBL Patron Satisfaction Survey respondents rate their satisfaction as “Excellent” or “Good”

September 2015

The results are in for the 2014 Colorado Talking Book Library (CTBL) Survey, which seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the library and overall satisfaction with its services. CTBL provides free library services, including recorded books, Braille materials, large print books, and descriptive videos, to Coloradans of all ages who are unable to read standard […]

Median academic librarian pay in 2013 was $53,000

July 2014

Library Journal recently released results from its first Salary Survey for U.S. librarians and paralibrarians, across all library types. This new survey is a bit different than those we’ve talked about before in Weekly Number posts here and here and Fast Facts reports like this one: It isn’t tied to a particular library type or […]

Bar chart showing average starting hourly wage by degree requirements, 2008-2012.
November 2013

Based on 5 years of job postings on our own Library Jobline, we’ve found that starting wages for library jobs are stagnant overall (see our Fast Facts). But this is only one piece of the pay equity puzzle: The American Library Association–Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA) has published an updated Pay Equity Bibliography. The bibliography includes […]

Off to a Good Start: A Look at First-Quarter 2012 Statistics from LibraryJobline.org

August 2012

A recent LRS Fast Facts used statistics from LibraryJobline.org, an online service for job seekers and employers hosted by LRS, to assess the state of Colorado’s library job market in 2011 as compared to previous years. The report showed that after bottoming out in 2009, Colorado has seen a slow but steady increase in the […]

What is the value of an MLIS to you?

June 2012

Forbes.com recently posted an article on “The Best And Worst Master’s Degrees For Jobs,”  and a Master’s in Library and Information Science was ranked the No. 1 worst degree. These rankings were based on mid-career median pay and estimated rate of growth of careers in 35 popular degrees. The results of our 60-second poll “The […]