A lass in libraryland is perhaps what you would call a shrinking violet – quiet, a little shy, keeps herself to herself and likes to just get on with the job.  She is dedicated, enjoys her work and counts her Librarian blessings upon waking each morning.  ALIL finds her worth in the ‘thank you’ from a student, the smile on a staff members face or the high loan stats for a new title. This is all very laudable, but…

… a lass in libraryland has been a book pusher for over 17 years, the majority of that time working in the job of her dreams and yet she is still getting paid a salary that a modern day library graduate would turn their noses up at – even in these difficult economic times.

So why does she stay you cry? Why doesn’t she look for a better paid job elsewhere? A good question but here comes the rub – if she went somewhere else which offered a greater monetary reward she knows in her heart of hearts she would be compromising on job satisfaction. Every morning when she woke up she would ask herself why did you give up your dream job for the sake of more greenbacks?

So last week ALIL FINALLY got up the nerve to ask for a salary review (surely it is better to ask than sit stewing it over and over and over and over, wondering what the answer might be if only the chutzpah could be located to ask) – having avoided the awkward moment for so long she has picked the week before the October spending review to get bold and pop the question…

Having poured over old CILIP Gazettes, identified comparable posts, listed her new roles and responsibilities, and highlighted her professional development (flash that chartership bling), she has amassed a portfolio of persuasion (for persuasion read vainglorious pleading).

The request letter has been penned, now all a lass in libraryland has to do is find a backbone, push the dirty bundle under the management office door and hide in the stacks until 2056.