U. of Hawaii: New University Librarian’s $195K Salary Brings Criticism
University of Hawaii administrators are asking the Board of Regents to approve a salary of $195,000 for the UH Manoa’s next head librarian, a pay level that’s being criticized as “out of line” and “appalling” by some librarians, their union and a state lawmaker who’s been critical of UH spending choices.
Irene Herold is the dean of Mason Library at Keene State College in New Hampshire, a small state school with about 5,200 students, roughly a quarter the student population of UH Manoa.
Next week, the UH Regents will vote on a proposal to hire Herold as UH Manoa’s university librarian, overseeing three libraries, an $15 million annual budget and about 145 faculty and staff.
Herold’s proposed annual salary is $195,000 for three years and she’ll be granted tenure automatically, under the deal set to go before the regents in a vote March 21.
That’s $50,000 higher than the interim UH librarian is being paid now and $52,536 more than the last permanent university librarian was paid before she left UH in December of 2006. The permanent position has been vacant for more than six years.
Filed under: Academic Libraries, Libraries, News
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.