ASSOCIATES (vol. 4, no. 3, March 1998) - associates.ucr.edu
*THE ALA SSIRT LIBRARY SUPPORT STAFF ISSUES SURVEY RESULTS* by Ed Gillen Agency Training and Development Specialist NYS Education Department Albany, NY egillen@mail.nysed.gov My name is Ed Gillen and I'm presently acting as a process guide for the American Library Association SSIRT in developing a strategic plan to help resolve some long standing support staff issues. Before joining the Office of Human Resources Management Staff Development and Training Unit, I was a Library Technical Assistant for 16 years at the New York State Library. Have you heard about the SSIRT Support Staff Issues Survey and ALA SSIRT's plan? Here is some background. At the 1996 ALA annual conference, the SSIRT Executive Board gave their approval to a strategic planning process that called for the identification of the 'most pressing needs of support staff and to develop recommended strategies to address these needs.' A Steering Committee was formed, a survey was identified as the methodology to use, it was piloted and refined. On January 2 & 3, 1997 information on the process and how to access the survey were announced to LIBSUP-L. Ten days later the survey was posted to LIBSUP-L. By ALA Mid-winter (1997), over 600 responses had been received. The Steering committee extended the deadline to May 30 to allow for survey distribution at a number of spring conferences. Surveys were accepted up until June 9, 1997. Over 2,000 response were received and we thank you all! Results were tabulated in an expeditious manner considering the numbers received and the number of individuals compiling the data. However, since a large percentage of the surveys received were filled out incorrectly (check marks instead of the requested 1 to 5 ranking, the ALA SSIRT Executive Board at their annual meeting (6/28/97) recommended that the results be reexamined to 'accurately determine the top three [issues] prior to handing off to the subcommittees for analysis.' That reexamination is now completed. SUMMARY OF SURVEY TO DETERMINE TOP THREE ISSUES OF CONCERN TO SUPPORT STAFF Participants were asked to rank the five issues they would like to see receive the highest priority from SSIRT in future strategic planning. A large percentage of respondents did not rank the issues but simply placed a checkmark beside those they considered important. For that reason, a statistician from the University of Colorado at Denver reviewed the issues ranked 1-5 and those checkmarked as important. The top three issues are listed in order of ranking. 1. Career ladders (few opportunities for advancement) 2. Compensation not appropriate to level of education, experience, and responsibilities 3. Access to continuing education and training opportunities Of the people who responded: 505 worked in Acquisitions 759 worked in Cataloging/Processing 1048 worked in Circulation 483 worked in Interlibrary Loan 740 worked in Reference 442 worked in Serials 774 worked in "Other" Of the people who responded: 283 worked in a privately funded College or University Library 735 worked in a publicly funded College or University Library 96 worked in an Elementary/High School Library 747 worked in a public library 65 worked in a privately funded Special Library 61 worked in a publicly funded Special Library 100 worked in "Other" Library Of the people who responded, worked in a library where the total population served: 351 served a population of less than 5,000 277 served a population of 5,000-9,999 371 served a population of 10,000-24,999 395 served a population of 25,000-49,000 245 served a population of 50,000-99,999 190 served a population of 100,000-249,999 98 served a population of 250,000-499,999 73 served a population of 500,000-999,999 87 served a population of more than 1,000,000 Of the people who responded: 625 earned a high school diploma 279 earned an Associate's Degree 727 earned a Bachelor's Degree 64 earned a Master's Degree--MLS 116 earned a Master's Degree--"Other" 10 earned a Ph. D Of the people who responded: 126 earned less than $10,000 annually 256 earned $10,000-$14,999 annually 444 earned $15,000-$19,999 annually 513 earned $20,000-$24,999 annually 346 earned $25,000-$29,999 annually 141 earned $30,000-$34,999 annually 83 earned over $35,000 annually NEXT STEPS SURVEYS! They're necessary as one way to collect data yet often frustrating if nothing is done with the data once collected. Library support staff issues have been previously identified and examined. What often wasn't done was developing a plan that identified action steps to address these issues. In all fairness to past efforts, the infrastructure to carry out a plan wasn't in place 10 years ago as it is today. Today there is e-mail, websites, discussion lists, ejournals, teleconferences as well as a host of new local, regional, statewide and national library support staff organizations. That network has nurtured the career awareness amongst library support staff and has resulted in a lot of positive change. It also led to the collaborative effort to publicize and encourage completion of the ALA SSIRT Support Staff Issues survey. That survey identified the top three issues which should receive the highest priority in ALA SSIRT's strategic planning. The process continues with the formation of 3 separate task forces whose main charge is to recommend implementable solutions to address these issues -- internally within ALA and ALA working with the larger library community. The ALA SSIRT Executive Board will be kept up to date by a series of task force reports with final reports due by June 1999. Although this is an ALA SSIRT led effort, the Executive Board recognizes that a lot of great people are working towards addressing issues locally, regionally and on a statewide and national level. They recognize that they will need your help in developing and implementing the steps necessary to finally address the issues you identified in the survey. We will keep ASSOCIATES readers up to date as the process continues. Results can be found on the WWW at the Library Support Staff Resource Center at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/ssp/survey1.htm