{"title":"Two Decades of Futility: The Decline of Medical/Health Science Librarian Salaries.","authors":"David Petersen","doi":"10.1080/02763869.2024.2371753","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>While medical and health science librarians' median salaries have increased over the last forty years; however, inflation-adjusted salaries are lower than in 2008. Utilizing data from the Medical Library Association's salary surveys from 1983 to 2023, this column explores median salary changes over time by discussing the median salary's performance against inflation and how the 2008 recession and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic impacted salaries. From 2017 to 2023, the median salary increased by 18%, but after adjusting for inflation, the median salary decreased by almost 6%. The findings have serious implications for recruitment and retention in medical and health sciences librarianship.</p>","PeriodicalId":39720,"journal":{"name":"Medical Reference Services Quarterly","volume":"43 3","pages":"262-267"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Medical Reference Services Quarterly","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2024.2371753","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/7/26 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
While medical and health science librarians' median salaries have increased over the last forty years; however, inflation-adjusted salaries are lower than in 2008. Utilizing data from the Medical Library Association's salary surveys from 1983 to 2023, this column explores median salary changes over time by discussing the median salary's performance against inflation and how the 2008 recession and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic impacted salaries. From 2017 to 2023, the median salary increased by 18%, but after adjusting for inflation, the median salary decreased by almost 6%. The findings have serious implications for recruitment and retention in medical and health sciences librarianship.
期刊介绍:
This highly acclaimed, peer-reviewed journal is an essential working tool for medical and health sciences librarians. For those professionals who provide reference and public services to health sciences personnel in clinical, educational, or research settings, Medical Reference Services Quarterly covers topics of current interest and practical value in the areas of reference in medicine and related specialties, the biomedical sciences, nursing, and allied health. This exciting and comprehensive resource regularly publishes brief practice-oriented articles relating to medical reference services, with an emphasis on user education, database searching, and electronic information. Two columns feature the Internet and informatics education.