The wide range of views that has been aired on the pay and status issue, and CILIP's role within it, breaks down into 5 basic questions:

        1  What is the actual current situation regarding pay and status throughout the profession and what is CILIP doing about it?
        2  What advice does CILIP offer both its Members and employers at the moment?
        3  Why does CILIP accept advertisements for jobs with low rates of pay?
        4  What does CILIP do when jobs at rates of pay below guidelines come to its attention? 
        5  Will CILIP include 'Pay, conditions and image of the library profession, and the role of CILIP in improving them' on the agenda of the Thursday 10:00-12:00 discussion session with CILIP Council at Umbrella?

These questions are answered below...

1  What is the actual current situation regarding pay and status throughout the profession and what is CILIP doing about it?

CILIP conducted a Pay & Status Survey during 2002.  This goes in full to CILIP Council on 12th February, and an Executive Summary was available at the previous Council meeting in December.  This is the start of the move towards CILIP being able authoritatively and confidently to advocate for the wider library and information profession in the current volatile economic environment.  The full results will be available on the website towards the end of this month, once Council has had an opportunity to consider the issues they raise.  Those issues have been mirrored very accurately in the recent debate on LIS-CILIP and focus on pay, recognition, resources, and unrealistic expectations - compounded by a lack of any real understanding about what 'we' do.

A quick taster of the information gathered:
*       513 responses were received, as follows:  further education (20); finance (7); government (130); higher education (38); health (117); industry (49); law (24); media (6); public (21); school (79); voluntary (16)
*       257 of the respondents were Chartered and 5 were Fellows.
*       There is a good recognition of the non traditional library and information skills that are required.
*       'We' are known by a multitude of titles.
*       The majority of salaries reported (71%) are below £25,000, with only 2% earning more than £40,000.
*       The way people work is increasingly varied, with some interesting new approaches and flexible arrangements being evident.
*       Only 68 people reported feeling "unrecognised" or "undervalued".  113 people feel "accepted", whilst the majority (65%) feel "valued" or "very valued". 

Until we can state categorically that an organisation without a CILIP member is less effective and viable than one with, we will continue to battle in other ways to have our real value appropriately recognised and rewarded.  In order to do that we must investigate, benchmark and survey thoroughly and regularly, to ensure that we have the necessary ammunition to convince the sceptical.  The reassuring thing about the current debate is not just the strength of feeling and energy which is evident, but the associated willingness, as a member-led Institute, to work on the issues collectively.  

2  What advice does CILIP offer both its Members and employers at the moment?

Since February 2002, Library and Information Appointments has carried a section relating to pay and status issues.  The lower half of the inside front page carries an article relating to employment - either a section from one of the salary guides or an associated topic, such as negotiation.  In this way readers can compare the salaries offered with those that are recommended, and benefit from tips and guidance on how to approach their career management. 

CILIP is currently comprehensively revising its Salary Guidelines, continuing work formerly done by the Library Association. The range reflects the diversity of sectors in which CILIP members work. They do have an effect and they are hugely important to many library and information workers; wholesale distribution of the school library salary guidelines in some local education authorities last year achieved the regrading of a number of posts. They are distributed on request to employers and to librarians, and are also available on the Web at: www.lisjobnet.org.uk/jobseek/salary.html. They are written by working parties of Members with the input of CILIP's Advisers.

CILIP also offers guidance for effective pay negotiation for individuals, and suggests sources of further help, in its leaflet Negotiating for Pay, which is available on the website at: www.cilip.org.uk/jobs_careers/negotiatingpay.html

We also suggest arguments that Members can deploy in demonstrating to employers how library and information professionals contribute to the effectiveness of an organization, in the leaflet Library and Information Professionals: their value to employers - on the website at: www.cilip.org.uk/jobs_careers/value.html <http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs_careers/value.html>.

Next, we are about to publish a self-empowerment pack for school librarians.  This will focus directly on pay and status, and will use research and case studies to suggest strategies for school librarians to address issues themselves.  Produced collaboratively by a School Libraries Group working group, it's an organic document that will develop as librarians use it and contribute their own case studies.  It will go onto the CILIP web site very soon, and will include a downloadable PowerPoint presentation for advocacy purposes.

We're now starting work on a similar advocacy toolkit covering the profession as a whole.  We began by collaborating with the American Library Association on this, but the situation is quite different in the States, so instead we will be creating our own, based on material in the ALA toolkit plus material from the school librarians' pack.


3  Why does CILIP accept advertisements for jobs with low rates of pay?

We aim to make Library and Information Appointments the key place for job advertisements for the library and information profession. While we don't have a monopoly, we are most certainly the leading magazine in the field. If we started censoring the ads we would find that many advertisers would simply not deal with us and would place all their ads elsewhere.  75-80% of our ads come through agencies; if we tried to pick and choose, the agencies would certainly look to another medium.  If that happened, Appointments would cease to be the attractive Member benefit that we know it currently is.  

So we don't censor; instead we give Members the facts, and let them judge for themselves.  However we do include a disclaimer in Appointments, warning that advertisements do not necessarily meet CILIP's recommended guidelines and explaining that CILIP makes representations to employers where advertised jobs don't meet recommended salary levels.  We have recently strengthened this disclaimer and now print it in a larger font.

Clearly this doesn't do anything to solve the problem of low pay - but it does ensure that we can run such a service at no direct cost to our Members, and that they are kept informed of a wide range of jobs.  It also enables CILIP to take note of low paid jobs and take action...


4  What does CILIP do when jobs at rates of pay below guidelines come to its attention?

CILIP tackles this in two ways - through monitoring ads in Library and Information Appointments and through INFOmatch, CILIP's own recruitment agency.

The Advisers monitor all ads that appear in Library and Information Appointments. They write letters to employers in cases where jobs appear to be offered below recommended salary levels, or to those where the conditions or status of the post seem inappropriate.

INFOmatch is prepared to turn away - and has done so, after discussion - clients that offer a rate that is too low for the job and/or location.  INFOmatch staff try to re-educate clients - and usually succeed.  Unless there are special circumstances, INFOmatch will not place a professionally qualified or experienced and capable person into a job that is below generally accepted market rates or does not conform to CILIP guidelines.  Where such special circumstances apply, then the client, INFOmatch/CILIP and the candidate must always be in full agreement.  When candidates come to INFOmatch simply for advice (as CILIP members are encouraged to do), we would urge them not to accept jobs that are poorly paid for the work expected.


5  Will CILIP include 'Pay, conditions and image of the library profession, and the role of CILIP in improving them' on the agenda of the Thursday 10:00-12:00 discussion session with CILIP Council at Umbrella?

Yes.


In conclusion...

I hope this helps to explain that CILIP staff, working under the direction of Council, Executive Board, Committees and Panels of members, do address all the issues raised by members in these email exchanges.  They don't claim to have instant solutions, but they do take the issues seriously and strive for continuous incremental improvements.

Many issues are beyond their control - the economy, obviously, and how this affects pay generally - but also negotiations that are the proper concern of trade unions.  CILIP members belong to a wide range of unions, including Unison, National Association of Schoolmasters / Union of Women Teachers, Association of Teachers & Lecturers, National Union of Teachers, Prospect, Amicus, First Division Association and others.  CILIP's job is to support its own members with the evidence and arguments they need in their union negotiations, and it does this through the guidelines and advocacy support that it produces, through casework undertaken by the advisers, and through constant monitoring of pay levels.  

It also gives members the opportunity to develop their own careers by informing them of job opportunities, offering training courses and professional publications, monitoring the quality of academic courses offered to library and information students, and through Chartership.  

CILIP's Corporate Plan commits it to introducing a framework of qualifications for people working in a technical or paraprofessional capacity, and work on this is progressing quickly.  One contributor to the debate asked about links between NVQ level 4 and existing library and information qualifications; Northumbria University offers NVQ-degree course links and Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, offers students at local further education colleges direct admission to level 2 with HNDs.  CILIP's own framework of qualifications will also act as a bridge between existing national qualifications and formal library and information qualifications.  Finally, CILIP is also committed to extending opportunities for Chartership to people who have progressed through the profession by virtue of their career path rather than as a result of formal library and information qualifications.  When this is in place, it will enable CILIP to open up membership and services to people from a wide range of related backgrounds, including research, electronic publishing, knowledge management and information, advice & guidance.

Contributors to this debate quite rightly asked for action, and we hope this indicates the range of actions both currently going on and planned for the future.  CILIP is less than one year old and is eager to push forward on issues that are clearly of concern to members as quickly as it can.  

Contributors to this email include: Bob McKee, Janet Liebster, Sue Brown, Jonathan Douglas, Lyndsay Rees-Jones, Susan Baillie, Marion Huckle and Tim Owen.


Tim Owen, Head of External Relations
CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
7 Ridgmount St, London WC1E 7AE.
Direct line: +44 (0)20 7255 0652.  
Email: [log in to unmask]

CILIP - what's in it for you?  Membership of CILIP entitles you to a wide and expanding range of Member benefits. To find out what's on offer, go to www.cilip.org.uk/member/member.html .
CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals - www.cilip.org.uk.