3rd Congress on Professional Education: Focus on Library Support Staff (COPE III)

May 16-17, 2003
College of DuPage
Glen Ellyn, IL

Background Reading for Delegates

Key Documents

Career Ladders

• • ALA Library and Information Studies and Human Resource Utilization, Jan. 2002. (pdf)
    
    
  • Final Report from the ALA SSIRT Task Force on Career Ladders, June 1999. (pdf)
    
    
  • Advancement for Support Staff - Issue Paper #6 from the World Book-ALA Goal Award Project on Library Support Staff, 1991.
    
    
  • Responsibility Without Authority - Issue Paper #7 from the World Book-ALA Goal Award Project on Library Support Staff, 1991.

  
  

• Compensation
  
  
  • Final Report from the ALA SSIRT Task Force on Compensation, June 2000. (pdf)
    
    
  • Compensation for Support Staff - Issue Paper #5 from the World Book-ALA Goal Award Project on Library Support Staff, 1991.
    
    
  • State Salary Comparisons: Librarians, Library Technicians, and Library Assistants, 2000 data, compiled by Martha Parsons. PDF | Excel
    
    
  • Comparisons of Library Job Wages with Other Professions Wages, 2000 data, compiled by Martha Parsons. PDF | Excel
    
    
  • Salary and Pay Equity Issues for Library Support Staff - Presentation by Gene Kinnaly for a panel discussion on the "Role of ALA in Supporting Library Workers' Salaries," ALA Annual Conference 2002, Atlanta (pdf)
    
    
  • Advocating for Better Salaries and Pay Equity Toolkit - Campaign for America's Librarians, ALA-APA, Jan. 2003 (pdf)

  
  

• Continuing Education and Training
  
  
  • Final Report from the ALA SSIRT Task Force on Access to Continuing Education & Training Opportunities, March 2000. (pdf)
    
    
  • Criteria for Programs to Prepare Library Technical Assistants from the ALA Committee on Education, Task Force for Review of the Criteria for Programs to Prepare Library Technical Assistants, 1998.
    
    
  • ALCTS Task Force on Meeting the Continuing Education Needs of Paraprofessionals Report, 1995.
    
    
  • Basic Education for Support Staff - Issue Paper #2 from the World Book-ALA Goal Award Project on Library Support Staff, 1991.
    
    
  • Continuing Education for Support Staff - Issue Paper #3 from the World Book-ALA Goal Award Project on Library Support Staff, 1991.

  
  

• Staff Shortages

Additional Reading

• General
  
  
  • Issue Papers from the World Book-ALA Goal Award Project on Library Support Staff, 1991.
    
    
  • Library Support Staff in an Age of Change: Utilization, Role Definition, and Status, by Larry Oberg, ERIC Digest, EDO-IR-95-4, May 1995.
    
    
  • Library Support Staff Issues Bibliography from the Library Support Staff Resource Center.
    
    
  • Soaring to Excellence Library Support Staff Teleconference

  
  

• Career Ladders
  
  
  • Auburn University Libraries' Career Ladder Program
    
    
  • Turning Jobs into Careers: A Preliminary Report on Career Paths for Support Staff, from the Career Paths Task Force, Perkins Library, Duke University, August 1999.

  
  

• Compensation
  
  
  • Mitch Freedman Special Presidential Task Force on Better Salaries & Pay Equity, and the Support Staff Working Group

  
  

• Continuing Education and Training
  
  
  • Support Staff in a Transitional Age: Implications for Continuing Education, by Larry Oberg, Oregon Library Association Quarterly, Spring 1997.

  
  

• Staff Shortages
  
  
• Role of Support Staff in ALA
  
  
• Mutual Respect Among All Levels of Staff in Libraries
  
  
  • Toward a More Perfect Union: Breaking Down the Caste System in Libraries, by Martha Parsons and Troy Christenson, Alki: The Washington Library Association Journal, December 2001. (pdf)
    
    
  • Job Satisfaction of Professional and Paraprofessional Staff at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master's paper by Richard A. Murray, 1999. (pdf)
    
    
  • MLS Librarian / Paraprofessional Communication and Mutual Respect - Issue Paper #4 from the World Book-ALA Goal Award Project on Library Support Staff, 1991.

  
  

• Certification and Certificates
  
  
  • Council on Library / Media Technicians' Position Paper on Skill Certification for Library / Media Support Staff
    
    
  • New York State Library Assistants Association Certificate of Achievement Program
    
    
  • ALA-APA Certification Task Force: Certification on Library Technical Assistants

  
  

• Appreciative Inquiry
  
  
  • What is Appreciative Inquiry? by Joe Hall and Sue Hammond
  • Appreciative Inquiry Commons