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ACADEMY OF CERTIFIED ARCHIVISTS
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AnalysisWith 58% of the respondents to the 1999 survey from the original Class of 1989, some of the data was perhaps predictable: an older membership and higher wages.Both surveys were evenly represented by men and women; of the non-Caucasian members, the higher percentage are women, however five men declined to answer this question. The good news in the age groupings was that 17% of respondents were in the 20-39-age bracket, but women dominated this bracket. Clearly, the profession as a whole needs to do a better recruiting minorities and men. While 60% of respondents do not have the MLS, the perception is that the majority of archivists today do indeed have/or should have the MLS. For employers who think that the MLS is the preferred degree, certification is the way to validate the knowledge and experience that the non-MLS has. It is puzzling that the surveys differed so dramatically on the question asking where archivists received the archival component of their education and training. In 1989, 57% took graduate-level courses and in 1999 only 25% reported that they had obtained the archival component of their archival training in graduate school. In all other possible areas of archival education, workshops, internships, and in-house training programs, the 1989 survey indicated much higher percentages of attendance in these programs. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that 58% of respondents were already fairly mature in the profession at the time of petitioning in 1989. By 1999, it is possible they no longer feel the need to further their education and training except for the amount needed to maintain certification. Archivists with 16 years or more of experience comprise 57% of respondents. This is in line with the fact that 58% of respondents are from the Class of 1989. The good news is that archivists with 15 years or less of work experience comprise 43% of respondents. However, when this is compared to the age distribution, it is clear that more work needs to be done to promote certification and encourage educators to make certification a part of their programs. In spite of the fact that this era is touted as the electronic age, the fact is that more archivists are working with paper than ever before: 80% in 1999 versus 76% in 1989. Only 2% reported that they work primarily with electronic records. However, this number should grow in the next ten years. It will be interested to see if it does. As a side note to the employment questions, 43% reported that they have supervisory responsibilities to one or more full-time employees. 68% answered that they supervise a combination of one or more paid and/or volunteer employees. While more work remains to be done to determine if certification is making a difference to salaries, it is encouraging that the median and mean salaries are up dramatically from 1989. Even accounting for inflation, the numbers are different. The only category that did not participate in the salary increase was the private repositories. As in 1989, women still dominate the lower salary brackets. It would be more encouraging if the ranges were more equitably distributed. Perhaps it is an education difference: as in 1989, women tended to dominate the bachelor’s and single master’s and men dominated the double master’s and doctorates. Regardless of the reason, it is up to those in management positions to do more to improve salaries and make them more equitable. When salary ranges were compared across institution type, the results were not that surprising. Corporate archivists have the highest average salaries with government wages a close second. However, academia made the most gains over the ten years between the surveys with a 29% average increase in salaries. Government and corporate archivists gained 17-20%. A gender comparison to institution type was not done. It is encouraging to note that 34% answered that their institution prefers hiring a certified archivist. This number should continue to grow as more employers realize that the credential exists and that it does indeed validate the wide variety, and therefore sometimes confusing, educational and employment backgrounds that archivist candidates come from.
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