Professional Sustainability:
The Elephant in the Archives
Dana Miller
SAA Session #106
August 13, 2009
The Elephant in the Room
According to Wikipedia:
“The term refers to a question, problem, solution, or
controversial issue that is obvious, but which is
ignored by a group of people, generally out of
embarrassment or taboo.
The idiom can imply a value judgment that the issue
ought to be discussed openly, or it can simply be an
acknowledgment that the issue is there and not going
to go away by itself.”
Archival sustainability and the
questions we dare not ask…
Who can afford to become an
archivist in 2009?
What does the job market
look like?
Are there enough jobs to go around?
How long can I afford
to remain an archivist?
Does my organization really
value the work I do if they
do not fund my programs?
Will I be able to find
a permanent position?
Why don’t we have more
diversity in our ranks?
What does it mean to work
in a “feminized” profession?
How bad is it out there?
Representatives from the
Archives Career Spectrum
 Recent graduate: Michelle Bogart
 Early-career professional (3-5 years experience):
Dana Miller
 University Archivist (Manager): Elizabeth Slomba
 Expatriate: Dayna Holz
Dissecting the Elephant- The Issues
 Insufficient Opportunity
More temporary positions than
permanent ones
 Limited advancement options
inside current repository
 Not enough jobs to go around
 Lack of Diversity in the Workforce
 Archival Education
 Proliferation of graduate programs misleading prospective
students into thinking steady employment is easier to attain
 Exorbitant cost of archival graduate education
 Not enough funding to help graduate students
 Low Salaries

Is this really an elephant?
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Analyze archives job announcements for JanuaryJuly 2009 (last 7 months) to compose snapshot of
current job market
Review A-Census 2004 with special attention to
salary, diversity, regional differences.
Bureau of Labor Statistics Data and Comparisonsarchivist profile, compared to librarian and
secondary education teacher (ie public school
teacher w/ a masters degree)
Graduate archives programs- how many programs
are there, how many graduates are they producing,
how much do they cost to attend?
Job Market Snapshot
 Sources of Job Announcements:
SAA Online Career Center
 ALA Joblist- “archives” search
 GetArchivistJobs.com aggregator
 Eliminated duplicates, non-archives
announcements, and unpaid opportunities
 My total: 114 unique job announcements
 Estimated total: 143 job announcements
(including those not listed on my source sites)

Criteria by which I analyzed job
announcements:
 Level and type of position
 Entry-level/Project/Processor: mainly processing
 Mid-level: non-management, duties beyond processing
 Manager/Director/Curator: mainly supervisory role
 Temporary vs. Permanent
 If temporary, how long? 1-3 years
 Type of repository
 Academic
 Historical Society
 Public Library
 Corporate/ Non-profit
 Government
 Geographic region
 Pay range
Job Announcements 2009:
Type of Repository
Academic Special Collections/
University Archives: 55%
Corporations and Non-Profits:
17%
Government: 12%
Historical Societies: 9%
Religious Archives: 4%
Public Libraries: 3%
Job Announcements 2009: by Region
West:
14 jobs
(12.3 %)
Mountain
States:
11 jobs
(9.6%)
Southwest:
11 jobs
(9.6%)
Midwest:
22 jobs
(19.3%)
East:
35 jobs
(30.7%)
South: 21 jobs (18.5%)
Job Announcements: Types/Levels
Management
21%
Entry Level:
Project, and
Processing
41%
Mid-Level
38%
Insufficient Opportunity:
Temporary vs. Permanent Positions
Job Announcements 2009
Temporary
Positions
(1-3 years)
29%
Permanent
71%
Of temporary positions,
half were 2 year projects,
nearly half were 1 year or less,
and only 5 were 3 years.
Insufficient Opportunity:
Temporary vs. Permanent Positions
 Of 47 entry level project or processing jobs, 25 were
temporary
 Of 43 mid-level jobs, 6 were temporary
 Of 24 management jobs, 1 was temporary
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Total Jobs
Temporary Jobs
Entry Level
Mid-Level
Management
Job Announcements 2009
Insufficient Opportunity: Limited options to
advance within one’s current organization
 Job announcements not informative on this issue
 Obvious: not everyone can expect to be the boss
 A-Census 2004 expects large numbers of Baby
Boomers reporting they plan to retire in “3-9 years”
(from 2004)
 Not every position that is vacated through retirement
will continue to exist at that repository
 Many must leave their current repository in order to
move up
 Can you hold on until 2013?
Insufficient Opportunity:
Not enough to go around
 There were only approx.127-143 job announcements
over 7 months (versus how many job seekers?)
 Other evidence:
 Archivists leave the profession every year – not
because they want to, but out of necessity.
 Recent graduates commonly spend 6 months to a
year job-hunting after graduation
 A-Census 2004: despite an anticipated workforce
shortage upon Baby Boomer retirement, there is at
present a dire shortage of available archives jobs.
 Shared problem with librarians and historians.
Lack of Diversity
 As a profession archives is composed of only 7%
minorities, as opposed to 25% of the general
population.
 The largest identifiable group is African Americans at
under 3%.
 Approximately 80% of all archives program graduate
students in 2004 were white; 90% for full-time
students.
 Among students, men were only 16% of the
population.
--Brenda Banks
A-Census, p. 490
Special Section on Diversity
Archival Education
 The MLIS is now the accepted standard entry
method (formerly it was on-the-job training)
 Too many programs?
 Too many graduates?
 Cost of attendance is often exorbitant or
prohibitive, out of proportion to average
earning capacity
 Not enough funding for students
 A need for more scholarships
 Is it ethical to accept students who may never
work in the field?
Archival Education:
Too many graduates, not enough jobs
Listed on SAA website:
San Jose State University
UCLA
Indiana University at Bloomington
Loyola University Chicago
Louisiana State University
University of Maryland
Simmons College
University of Michigan
Wayne State
Long Island University
New York University
Pratt Institute
St. John’s University
SUNY Albany
North Caroline State University
Kent State
Drexel University
University of Pittsburgh
Temple University
East Tennessee State University
Western Washington University
University of Wisconsin, Madison
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Not listed on SAA website:
University of Texas, Austin
University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill
Archival Education:
The Cost of Tuition for the Top 5 Programs *
Estimates are based on 3 semesters and
do not include any living expenses or fees.
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UT Austin: $17,800 in-state, $33,800 non-resident
U Michigan: $32,700 in-state, $66,100 non-resident
U Pittsburgh: $24,900 in-state, $44,000 non-resident
UCLA: $16,000 in-state, $25,700 non-resident
U Maryland: $17,000 in-state, $36,600 non-resident
*According to U.S. News Rankings 2009
Salaries: Job Announcements 2009
Starting Salaries
$64K-$66K: 2%
$73K: <1%
$54K-$55K: $58K-$60K: 4%
1.5%
$91K: <1%
$134K: <1%
$48-$50K: 8%
$44K-$46K: 7%
No Salary
Information
50%
$40K-$42K:
12%
$35K-$39K: 8%
$30,000 or less:
5%
Of the 57 job announcements that included
salary information, approx. 70% of the
starting salaries were between $35,000 and
$50,000. 10% offered less than $35,000 and
20% offered more than $54,000.
Salaries: A-Census 2004 Data
Average Salaries Reported
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$20K or less: 2.6% (about 100 respondents) (p 371 also)
$20K-$29K: roughly 10% (just over 400 respondents)
$30K-$39K: 22% (almost 1000 respondents)
$40K-$49K: 22% (almost 1000 respondents)
$50K-$59K: 14% (600 respondents)
$60K-$69K: 9% (just under 400 respondents)
with the remaining 25% spread between ranges from $70K and
over.
--A-Census p. 371
The $30,000 to $49,000 ranges were the most common pay
ranges in 2004, reported by 44% percent of the respondents.
As compared to my 2009 job market analysis which showed that
70% of archives positions had a starting salary between
$35,000-$50,000.
The mean salary of all archivists in 2004 was $49,329. --A-Census
Salaries: Job Announcements 2009
High End of Salary Ranges
38 job announcements listed a range rather than a minimum or flat
number. As follows:
1 job topped out at $32K.
4 jobs topped out between $38K-$42K
3 jobs topped out between $43K-$46K
6 jobs topped out between $49K-$50K
3 jobs topped out between $52K-$55K
3 jobs topped out between $59K-$62K
5 jobs topped out between $64K-$67K
7 jobs topped out between $72K-$78K
6 jobs at the top of the pay scale topped out between $90K and $132K,
with one very high level job going up to $162K
Salaries: Is your collar pink?
 A-Census 2004: 65% of respondents were female

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mean salary for men in FY2003 was $55,302
mean salary for women was $46,604
--A-Census, p. 371
 Largely dependent upon what types of repositories
women work at versus men and what type of work
they perform, as well as slightly more men in
management positions.
 Feminized or “pink collar” professions like nursing
and teaching are historically underpaid, undervalued.
 Throughout A-Census, it is clear that minorities also
make slightly lower salaries than average, for many
of the same reasons.
Salaries: Regional breakdown
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Mid-Atlantic: 56,517
Upper Mid-Atlantic: $50,632 (PA, NJ)
South Mid-Atlantic: $63,687 (DC, MD, DE, WV)
West: 55,403 (CA, NV, HI)
New England: 49,365 (ME, VT, NH, RI, MA, CT)
Northwest (WA, OR, AK): $48,905
Mountain: 46,815 (ID, MT, WY, CO, UT)
Midwest: $46,296
Great Lakes: $47,632 (IL, IN, MICH, MINN, OH, WI)
Plains: $43,226 (ND, SD NE, KS, IO, MO)
Southwest: $43,901 (AZ, NM, TX, OK)
South Atlantic: 43,217 (FL, GA, SC, NC, VA)
South Central: 41,801 (AL, AR, KE, LA, MS, TN)
--A-Census p. 373
Salaries:
Know your neighborhood
Determining your cost of living is vital…
$50,000 in Oakland, CA
= $45,000 in Boston, MA
= $42,500 in Boulder, CO and Seattle, WA
= $38,000 in Chicago, IL
= $35,000 in Laramie, WY and Milwaukee, WI;
= $30,000 in Memphis, TN and St. Louis, MO.
But you would need $75,500 to live at the same standard in Manhattan.
 CNN Money cost of living calculator
http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costofliving/costofliving.html
 Salary.com’s Salary Wizard reports the median expected salary for a typical
“document librarian.”
http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard
 What other tools do you use?
Salaries:
Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2009
5,330 Archivists: mean annual salary $48,220
10,820 Curators: mean annual salary $51,540
151,170 Librarians: mean annual salary $54,700
Mean annual salaries for teachers, nationwide:
1,544,270 Elementary school teachers: $52,240
661,820 Middle school teachers: $52,570
1,090,490 Secondary school teachers: $54,390
Helping the archives profession to love
you back…
 Increase opportunity!
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All archivists, but especially managers, can advocate more loudly for our
programs, and do more effective outreach.
Managers can advocate for permanent processor positions in appropriate
repositories.
 Increase diversity!

Archives leaders could work towards diversity by embracing the
suggestions of A-Census experts.
 Rethink the approach to education!
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Graduate programs could limit the number of students they accept each
year.
More scholarships and graduate funding can be made a priority.
 Better salaries!

SAA could follow the lead of larger sister organizations
 In June 2008, the ALA passed a resolution endorsing a non-binding
minimum salary of $41,680 for professional librarians.

Require job announcements to include some salary information.

Job seekers can more assertively advocate for themselves when
negotiating salaries.
No matter the issue, Outreach is Key…
“The fact that there is an abhorrent lack of knowledge
about who we are and what we do continues to be a
major drawback for recruitment for the profession in
general. While other professions have launched
major public awareness campaigns, we are hiding in
the stacks waiting to be discovered by the best and
brightest students. It is the responsibility of
professional organizations as well as archival
institutions to make drastic changes in our attitude,
and to remedy the lack of action in this area.”
--Brenda Banks,
A-Census 491
So long, elephant in the room…