[Publib] RE: Fair Librarian Salaries

[Crowley, Bill]

Greetings All:

I was going to stay out of the discussion on this topic but Jim's last
posting about teachers and power just made the difference. If you will
recall, Jim wrote

	<If anyone believes that teacher's unions have "very little
power" in 	the political landscape, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn
you might want 	to buy.  Ask any candidate for State Legislature how
potent the 	teacher's unions are when it comes to campaign
contributions and 	support at election time and how politicians on
both sides of the 	political aisle are extremely cautious about
bucking them on 	substantive issues (pay, job security and
educational standards).  	Look at your property tax bills and see
how much the k-12 public 	schools take when compared to all other
entities of local government 	combined (including community colleges
and universities).  Public 	schools take about 16 times more money
than the public library in our 	community.  A member of the E-Rate Task
force once gave a figure that 	combined local, state and Federal
funding sources and noted that out 	of every $100 of funding going
to both k-12 public schools and public 	libraries, the public schools
get $98 and the public
	libraries the remaining $2.
	James B. Casey -- My own views.>

As a service profession we really don't do a good job making our case
and this failure is a management failure. (As a former manager, I really
believe that all library problems are management problems at one level
or another.) Schools can get as much as 60% plus of all local tax
dollars for their operations. That reality can generally be traced to
the fact that schools embody local aspirations and hopes. Education, in
the U.S. context, is generally equated with success. There is also the
fact that the national teacher's organizations do a great job of
reminding former students just how much their P-12 teachers meant to
them.

Here I would urge you to visit the National Educational Association's
NEA Advertising - Television webpage at 
http://www.nea.org/advertising/television.html 
Play those videos and then do an internal check to determine if you are
resisting the subjective/objective messages that so well portray the
work of both teachers and support staff. (As a former PR professional, I
do so love a good PR campaign.) 

A related discussion came up on the JESSE maillist for library and
information educators and I will borrow from my own positing regarding
advice for having one's work perceived as valuable by the voter. (I
know, self-plagiarism is problematic but I am prepping for a night class
in another Illinois county.)

In the past, several students coming out of the corporate environment
directed me to Harry Beckwith's "Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to
Modern Marketing" (Warner Books 1997). 

A few of this highly successful entrepreneur's thoughts might stimulate
more debate or at least contribute to less of a defeatist attitude.

Assuming that we educate for service professions, we might want to
consider Beckwith's assertions that

* "In most professional services, you are not really selling
expertise--because your expertise is assumed, and because your prospect
cannot intelligently evaluate your expertise anyway. Instead, you are
selling a relationship. And in most cases, that is where you need the
most work. If you're selling a service, you're selling a relationship."
(42)

* "If you expressly or implicitly question the prospect's option of
doing it herself, you criticize the prospect and her judgment. That may
be an accurate analysis, but it is bullet-through-your-own-foot sales
and marketing." (45)

* "Highly intelligent people are the world's foremost experts at
squashing good ideas. That's because intelligent people have one
absolute favorite use for their formidable intelligence; telling other
people, with a total conviction and logic, why other people's ideas will
not work. Planning tends to attract these people, but they are
dangerous. As smart as they are, their memories fail them; they always
forget that good ideas often sound ludicrous at first. Think dumb." (67)

* "When asked to rank the most important criteria for choosing an
investment firm, clients consistently put return on investment--the best
evidence of technical proficiency in investing--below trust and other
'relationship issues.'" (182)

Finally,

"Watch your relationship balance sheet; assume it is worse than it
appears, and fix it." (219)

So, get them young; keep them happy, and emphasize relationships. People
vote for services that they like and see as being of benefit to them.

Bill Crowley, Professor
Graduate School of Library and Information Science       
Dominican University
7900 West Division Street
River Forest, IL 60305
708.524.6513
crowbill at dom.edu