The Research Department at SLA has been busy recently, completing a survey with annual meeting attendees, completing work on the 2000 Salary Survey and revising the applications process for the 2001 Steven I. Goldspiel Memorial Research Grant. Details of each project follow below.
The 2000 Special Libraries Association Salary Survey
The SLA Annual Salary Survey 2000 is now complete and available for purchase by calling 1-202-939-3673. The price is $45 for members and $54 for non-members.
A summary of the data in this year's publication includes:
The mean increase in salary from 1999 to 2000 was 4.2% for Canadian respondents and 5.9% for U.S. respondents.
The median increase in salary for special librarians was 3.8% in Canada and 4.0% in the United States.
Both mean and median salary increases in Canada and the United States gained relative to the inflation rate (3.5% in Canada, 3.1% in the U.S.) between April 1999 and April 2000.
For a complete table of contents and information about the survey's administration, please visit: www.sla.org/content/memberservice/researchforum/salarysurveys/salsur2000/index.cfm.
The Annual Meeting Survey
In May of this year, the Research Department, working with the Meetings Task Force and the Meetings and Exhibits Department, developed a questionnaire and disseminated it at the Annual Conference in Philadelphia. In response, SLA received 207 completed surveys. While the dissemination was not random or scientific, a snapshot comparison of respondents to all attendees (by chapter, division and length of membership) suggests that the results are generally representative.
Key findings of the report include:
Educational/professional content are, far and away, the most important consideration for potential attendees when deciding whether or not to attend. Networking opportunities and exhibits are also important, while social events are considered the least important of the attributes respondents rated.
Mirroring the above results, when respondents were asked to rate several types of meeting content, division programming was considered most important, with networking opportunities and vendor presentations also scoring highly.
Importantly, given the primacy of educational content in the decision to attend, 94% of respondents said that the conference addressed "issues and problems you experience in your daily work" and 88% said it provided "tools to more effectively deal with those problems."
Generally speaking, those surveyed said they want sessions dealing with cutting edge or best practices as they relate to management and technology issues. Nearly three in four said they would like more hands-on technology training.
Respondents rated their overall satisfaction with SLA's Annual Conference at 4.8 and rated its overall value at 4.6 on a six-point scale.
Thank you to everyone who responded to this survey! SLA will use the results to improve future meetings for all SLA members. Please look for similar surveys at all future SLA meetings and conferences.
2001 Steven I. Goldspiel Memorial Research Grant Application Materials Now Available
The Steven I. Goldspiel Memorial Research Fund was established in 1991, and named in honor of the former President of Disclosure, Inc. (now known as Primark). The Research Fund is an endowment. Research projects are funded solely from investment income generated by the Fund, and recent awards have been close to $20,000, though projects with smaller budgets are also encouraged. The purpose of the Fund is to support projects which promote research on and advancement of library sciences, in particular focusing on projects which address the goals identified in SLA's Research Agenda.
Application guidelines have been revised and clarified for 2001 and are now available at SLA's website. Please note that the deadline for this year's applications has been moved forward to February 14 to give the Research Committee time to request any needed revisions or explanations. Please read the application carefully as non-conforming submissions will not be considered.
To see the application form and revised guidelines in their entirety, please visit:
http://www.sla.org/content/memberservice/researchforum/goldspiel.cfm.
For more information, contact Douglas Newcomb(doug@sla.org).
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