Deadline: January 30, 2009

Big Read grants require the participation of a library as a lead applicant or a partner. IMLS strongly encourages museums of all types to apply as lead applicants or as partner organizations in the Big Read. Communities across the country have strengthened their Big Read projects by enlisting the support of art, science, history, and children’s museums, as well as aquaria, arboreta, botanical gardens, nature centers, and zoos. Some library/museum collaborations include:

• In its celebration of A Farewell to Arms, the Oak Park Public Library in Oak Park, IL, partnered with the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park to host book discussions and costumed tours of the Hemingway birth home and museum.

• In programs related to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, the Attleboro Public Library in Attleboro, MA, partnered with the Attleboro Arts Museum on “Reflections of Fahrenheit 451,” the community’s artistic response to the book and “The River of Our Voices,” a poetry workshop for readers of Fahrenheit 451.

• The major role of animals in Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, spurred the Omaha Public Library in Omaha, NE, to team up with the Henry Doorly Zoo for a talk by local Iditarod participant Matt Anderson and information sessions on various aspects of wolf behavior, diet, and habitat.

Organizations selected to participate in the Big Read will receive a grant, financial support to attend a national orientation meeting, educational and promotional materials for broad distribution, an organizer’s guide for developing and managing Big Read activities, guidance on working with local media, inclusion of the organization and its activities on the Big Read Web site, and the prestige of participating in a highly visible national initiative.

The Request for Proposals can be downloaded at www.NEABigRead.org. The proposal deadline is February 12, 2008. Questions should be directed to Arts Midwest at 612/341-0755 or TheBigRead@artsmidwest.org.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest.

For the first time the non-MLS salary survey data, including 62 non-MLS positions, reported salaries for staff employed as librarians but who do not have ALA-accredited Master’s Degrees in Library Science. Non-MLS salaries ranged $10,712 to $143,700. Both printed surveys also indicate the minimal educational requirement for each position.

Published by the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA), the survey shows aggregated data from more than 7,500 ALA-MLS librarians and almost 20,000 non-MLS individual salaries at the state and regional levels. Librarian positions included are directors/deans, associate/assistant directors, department heads, managers of support staff, librarians who do not supervise and beginning librarians. Non-MLS positions are library specific (e.g. library technical assistants and clerks by functional area, bookmobile drivers, collection development managers) and non-library specific (e.g. senior accountants, administrative assistants, proposal writers, human resources managers, information technology managers).

The survey gives national-level mean and quartile data. These printed reports include analysis of salary trends and an extensive appendix ofother sources of compensation data within and outside of the library profession.

“The Librarian Salary Survey” continues more than 20 years of collecting and reporting salary data for six positions requiring an ALA-accredited master’s degree in library science. The Non-MLS Salary Survey has been published since 2006.

“The Librarian Salary Survey” price remains unchanged at $63 for ALA members/$70 for non-members. Participating libraries receive a 25 percent discount. “The Non-MLS Salary Survey” is $90 for ALA members/$100 for non-members and participating libraries receive a 25 percent discount. Database users may subscribe online at http://cs.ala.org/websurvey/salarysurvey/salarysurveyform/form.cfm. Print purchasers may order through the ALA Store at http://www.alastore.ala.org/.

Both surveys were completed with consultation from Denise Davis, director of the ALA Office for Research and Statistics, and conducted by
The Management Association of Illinois.

The American Library Association-Allied Professional Association: the Organization for the Advancement of Library Employees is a service
organization to the American Library Association and has as one of its missions supporting salary improvement initiatives for library workers.
Please contact the ALA-APA Office at 800-545-2433, x2424 or jgrady@ala.org with questions or comments.