News Room

LIANZA Remuneration Survey 2008 for Library Managers

9 October 2008

For the third time, a remuneration survey of the entire library profession in New Zealand is under way. The LIANZA Remuneration Survey is used by Library Managers, HR staff and librarians to benchmark their pay. It is also used by LIANZA (The Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa) to inform initiatives such as pay equity.

We invite LIBRARY MANAGERS to complete the attached template, providing information on job titles, job categories, gender, annualised base salary and any benefits or bonuses received.

Please read this letter before completing the survey form.

Changes from 2007 survey

There are a few changes to last year's survey that make the 2008 survey shorter and simpler.

The biggest change is that we are asking Library and Information Managers to provide all the information for all their staff. The key reasons for this change are:

• to increase the robustness of the survey information for HR professionals
• to simplify the process

Benefits

The 2008 Remuneration Survey is a LIANZA initiative with the support of all the major library groupings. The results of the survey will:

• allow us to compare salaries and conditions across New Zealand
• compare the trends from the previous surveys in 2005 and 2007
• contribute to ensuring the salary decisions our employers make for us and our staff are fair and justified.

Return address

Please return your completed survey to: LIANZA.RemunerationSurvey@mm-research.com by Friday 24th October.

The template includes a column for staff names to make it easier for you to keep track of who you have included, which may be useful for large libraries. Names of staff are not required for the survey, so once you have completed the template, we suggest you take a copy for your records and then delete the information in this column. If you choose to leave it in, you can be confident that this information is confidential to MMResearchTM and will not be disclosed to LIANZA or any of the contributing associations.

Job categories

We ask you to allocate to each library/information role one of eight generic role categories. An explanation of each of the generic role categories is available in the template. Not all the positions in your library will fit neatly into one of the eight generic roles. Please categorise the roles in your organisation into the "best fit" generic role. For some libraries/information services, only some of the generic roles will be relevant.

Think about the role, not the person.

It is important when you categorise the jobs in your library that you do it on the basis of what the role does for the library/information service. It is about what the role requires in qualifications, experience, skills and accountability to get the work done, NOT the ability, qualifications and experience of the person currently in the job.

What's in, what's out?

Included:

• All permanent "library/information service work" positions (Library/information Assistants, Library and Information Professionals, Library/Information Managers)
• Technical roles which need significant library knowledge (e.g. library system administrator, website content manager).

Excluded:

• All casual and temporary positions
• Pure technical roles such as PC network administrator, hardware technicians, and other ICT roles for which the body of knowledge for librarianship is not needed.

Where there are blended roles, such as roles which include records, technical or administrative components for example, the "best fit" should consider the professional element of the role. When you have all the library/information roles allocated to a category please complete the other information required for each person in your organisation i.e. gender and salary information.

Contacts for queries

If you have any questions about the survey, in the first instance please contact your sector representative:

Jo Hickling National Library - HR
Alistair Jenkin New Zealand Law Librarians Association (NZLLA)
Sandra Mann Association of Public Library Managers (APLM)
Maria Connor Special Libraries and Information Services (SLIS)
Craigie Sinclair Council of New Zealand University Librarians (CONZUL)
Mary Weddell Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics New Zealand (ITPNZ)

In the second instance please contact: Alli Smith, Executive Director, LIANZA 

Thank you for taking the time to complete this important survey.

Moira Fraser
Chair, LIANZA Remuneration Survey Committee