Academic and Public Librarian Salaries and Library Staffing Expenditures Trends, 2000-2009

Library salaries/wages and benefits expenditures consume as much as 70 percent of some library operating budgets. The impact of low or negative-growth budgets and the displacement of technology expenditures to other categories of library operating (e.g., collections, programming, and outreach) are significant for many libraries. Relying on national surveys of academic libraries from the National Center for Education Statistics, surveys of public libraries from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and annual salary surveys from the American Library Association (ALA) and ALA-Allied Professional Association, this article will describe, for the period 2000-2009, the distribution of academic and public library expenditures, present librarian salary survey ranges by type of library and position held, and elucidate trends identified from comparison of the three data sources.