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I about to start negotiating with our Senior Management in regard to the pay scales that our library assistants are currently on. They seem to be extremely poorly paid for what they do, and in contrast to other administrative staff within the College whose roles seem wholly comparable. I have been making an assumption about the roles that our library assistants perform within a small higher education library, and I wonder whether I am correct in this, and whether there is any evidence I can use to back this up. In making this assumption I do not wish to cause offence to anyone or belittle anyone in their role, but it is my contention that the library assistants have to take on much more responsibility within the smaller academic library than their counter-parts in a larger HE library or a large public library where (I am assuming) the roles performed by different staff are more clearly demarcated. For example, we have library assistants doing MARC cataloguing, they act as the serials librarians, they undertake new student Inductions, they have full responsibility for the library when they work a late-night shift as there is a small element of lone working. Again it is my contention that in the smaller academic institution we have to perform the same tasks as in any larger higher education institution (though there is of course a difference in scale), and with a smaller number of staff it is inevitable that the library assistants will be called on to perform tasks that would otherwise be performed by professional or para-professional staff. So, I am right to assume this or is this wide of the mark? What chance do you think there is of making headway with this as an argument? If my assumption is correct is there any evidence to back this up? Would colleagues be willing to share some library assistant job descriptions (either to backup or disprove my assumption)? Would colleagues be willing to share (in general terms) what salaries their library assistants are on? Many thanks for nay help you can offer, Frank Trew College Librarian Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance.