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Related Groups, Initiatives, and Resources

This wiki page collects information about groups and campaigns working on labor issues in and adjacent to libraries, archives, and museums. Assembled and maintained by the DLF Labor Working Group.

Recommend a group or campaign for the list

Each entry below includes at least some of the following elements:

Group/campaign name
Issues covered
Initiatives
Resources
Bibliography
Communication channels

Click here to see these resources as a table

A Better Guggenheim

Issues: BIPOC/BAME network, organizing

Resources:

Bibliography:

Letter to the Board (June 2020)
Call for Resignations (September 2020)

Communication:

AFSCME

Issues: unions

Initiatives: Cultural Workers United

Resources:

Bibliography:

Communication:

Blog
Facebook (AFSCME)
Facebook (AFSCME)
Instagram
Twitter (CWU)
YouTube

AFT Academics

Issues: COVID-19, organizing, unions

Initiatives:

Resources:

Organizing Toolkit
Know Your Rights
International Worker Rights
Supporting Students During COVID-19
International Students & Workers FAQ
Online Teaching Toolkit (Association of College and University Educators)

Bibliography:

Communication:

Akron Art Museum Accountability

Issues: organizing, signal boosting

Communication: Twitter

American Alliance of Museums

Issues: hiring, salaries, volunteers, gender equity

Resources:

Bibliography:

For Love or Money: Confronting the State of Museum Salaries
Mutual Aid in a Time of Crisis (August 2020)

Communication:

American Association of University Professors

Issues: temporary positions, unions

Initiatives:

Resources:

Bibliography: Reports & Publications

Communication:

American Historical Association

Issues: hiring, temporary position, unions

Resources:

Bibliography: Statement on Right to Engage in Collective Bargaining (2019)

Communication:

American Library Association Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA)

Issues: advancement, salaries, unions

Initiatives:

Resources:

Bibliography:

Advocating for Better Salaries Toolkit (6th edition, April 2017)
Library Worklife newsletter
Pay Equity Bibliography (August 2013)
State Libraries Collecting and Reporting Salary Data (August 2016)
Workplace wellness reports

Communication:

Archives & Records Association (UK)

Issues: salaries, volunteers

Initiatives: Pay Review 2018

Resources:

Volunteering in Collections Care Best Practices Guidelines & Research Report
ARA Pay Review Group Summary (August 2018)
ARA Pay Review Group Freelance Summary (August 2018)

Archival Workers Emergency Fund

Issues: COVID-19, funding, temporary positions

Initiatives:

Resources: Resources for Displaced Archival Workers

Bibliography: Open Letter to the Archival Community re: Police Brutality

Communication: Twitter

Archive Staff Impact During COVID-19

Issues: COVID-19

Initiatives: Tracking spreadsheet

Archivist Salary Advocacy

Issues: salaries

Resources: Salary Spreadsheet

Communication: Google Group

Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York

Issues: hiring, internships, salaries

Resources: COVID-19 Resources

Bibliography: New Job Submission Policy

Communication:

ARLIS/NA Advocacy & Public Policy Committee

Issues: hiring, internships, salaries

Initiatives: News Alerts (see “Workplace” section)

Bibliography: Statement on Staff Reductions in Art Museum Libraries and Visual Resources Collections (December 2013)

Art + Museum Transparency

Issues: internships, salaries, unions

Resources:

Salary Spreadsheet (began 2019)
Internship Spreadsheet (began 2019)
Unions for All: Unionizing Museum and Arts Workers

Communication:

Artists for Workers

Issues: organizing, signal boosting

Initiatives:

Guggenheim projections
NewMuseum.net

Communication:

Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO

Issues: BIPOC/BAME network, COVID-19, funding, unions

Initiatives:

Resources:

Bibliography:

Communication:

Association of Art Museum Directors

Issues: internships, salaries

Initiatives: Annual salary survey

Bibliography: Association of Art Museum Directors Passes Resolution Urging Art Museums to Provide Paid Internships (June 20, 2019)

Communication:

Australian Library and Information Association

Issues: mentoring, salaries, temporary positions, volunteers

Initiatives:

Resources:

ALIA LIS Education, Skills and Employment Trend Report
ALIA LIS pay and employment snapshot 2020 - includes supplements on public, school, special, technical and further education (TAFE), and university libraries
ALIA Research Agenda
ALIA Students and New Graduates
Career and Professional Development Advisory Service
Library Technicians
Salary Scales and Work Level Guidelines (members only)

Bibliography:

ALIA supplementary statement about casual work in the library and information sector in Australia (September 2020)
Peak body for libraries opposes changes to university fees for LIS courses (June 2020)
ALIA urges lower university fees for Teacher Librarians (June 2020)
Professional development for library and information professionals (2019)
Statement on non-standard employment (2008, 2018)
Statement on library and information services staff appointments (2008, 2018)
Senior library and information services appointments (2008, 2017)
Statement on voluntary work in library and information services (2017)
Foundation Knowledge, Skills and Attributes relevant to Information Professionals working in Archives, Libraries and Records Management (amended 2015)
The Library and Information Sector: Core Knowledge, Skills and Attributes (amended 2014)
The Role of Volunteers in a Contemporary Professional Association (September 2010)
Library Technician Education in Australia: State of the Nation Report (April 2010)

Communication:

BIPOC Library Residents Mutual Aid

Issues: COVID-19, mutual aid, temporary positions

Initiatives:

Bibliography: COVID Residents Open Letter

Campaign for a Better MIT

Issues: benefits, salaries, temporary positions, unions

Initiatives: Forming a union: Support the MIT Library Workers

Communication:

#abetterMIT
Facebook
Instagram
News
Twitter

Canadian Association of University Teachers / Association canadienne des professeures et professeurs d’université (CAUT)

Issues: COVID-19, unions

Initiatives: Librarians' and Archivists' Committee

Resources:

Bibliography:

Open Educational Resources discussion paper (March 2019)
Reframing Scholarly Communications discussion paper (April 2002)
Librarians' Workload discussion paper (November 2000)
Library Councils discussion paper (October 2007)
Governance and Librarians discussion paper (April 2000)
Expanding Role of Teaching by Librarians in Post-Secondary Institutions discussion paper (February 2009)
Aboriginal and Visible/Racial Minority Librarians discussion paper (March 2008)

Communication:

Coalition on the Academic Workforce

Issues: temporary positions

Resources: A Portrait of Part-Time Faculty Members: A Summary of Findings on Part-Time Faculty Respondents to the Coalition on the Academic Workforce Survey of Contingent Faculty Members and Instructors (2012)

Collections on Contract

Issues: temporary positions

Initiatives:

Communication:

Blog
Twitter

Collective Responsibility: National Forum on Labor Practices for Grant-Funded Digital Positions

Issues: temporary positions

Initiatives:

advocacy toolkit
network for contingent workers
How to Talk About Collective Responsibility at Work

Resources:

Collective Responsibility Labor Toolkit

Bibliography:

Attendee posts
Collective Responsibility: Seeking Equity for Contingent Labor in Libraries, Archives, and Museums (September 2019)

Communication:

Community of Industrial Relations Librarians

Issues: unions

Resources:

Bibliography: Committee of University Industrial Relations Libraries (April 1971)

Communication:

Creating National Library Worker Union

Issues: organizing, unions Initiatives:

Petition

Crowd Consortium

Issues: volunteers

Resources: Best Practices for Crowdsourcing Across the Disciplines (May 6, 2015)

Culture Workers Education Center

Issues: internships, organizing, mutual aid, salaries & wages, signal boosting, temporary positions, unions

Initiatives:

Resources: Resources

Communication:

CUNY Adjunct Project

Issues: organizing, temporary positions

Initiatives:

Current Initiatives
Full and Fair Funding
$7k for Adjuncts
Toward a Just Contract
Tuition payments/permanent tuition remission for GC doctoral students

Resources:

Teaching Resources

Bibliography: Toward a Just Contract, Vol. 1 (June 2017)

Communication:

Death to Museums

Issues: COVID-19

Initiatives: Dialogue series

Communication:

Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO

Issues: gender equity, organizing, student loan debt, temporary positions, unions

Initiatives:

Resources:

Bibliography:

Why Professionals are Unionizing During COVID-19
Organizing Publications
Fact Sheets
Library Professionals: Facts & Figures (August 2020)
Student Debt: A Critical Challenge Facing Professionals (October 2019)
Professional Women: A Gendered Look at Inequality in the U.S. Workforce (February 2017)
Professionals in the Contingent Workforce (August 2016)
Recourse for Employees Misclassified as Independent Contractors (August 2016)
Misclassification of Employees as Independent Contractors (June 2016)

Communication:

Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) Staff Action

Issues: organizing

Initiatives:

Resources: Q&A: Staff Satisfaction Surveys and upcoming Town Halls

Communication:

Dismantle the National WWII Museum

Issues: BIPOC/BAME network, organizing

Bibliography: * Open letter

Communication:

DLF Labor Working Group

Issues: COVID-19, hiring, salaries, temporary positions

Resources:

Communication:

Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee

Issues: COVID-19, organizing

Initiatives: Organize your Workplace against COVID-19 / Organice su lugar de trabajo contra el COVID-19

Resources: Orientation Guide

EveryLibrary Institute

Issues: COVID-19, funding

Initiatives: Help a Library Worker Out (HALO) Fund

Communication:

Fair Museum Jobs

Issues: COVID-19, hiring, internships, salaries, volunteers

Initiatives: Our Campaigns - a list of the organisations we’ve contacted, why contacted them, and how they responded

Resources: Resources

Bibliography:

Communication:

Front of House in Museums (FoHMuseums)

Issues: COVID-19, temporary positions, valuing labor

Initiatives:

Resources: Front of House in Museums Survey 2019

Bibliography:

Communication:

Gender Equity in Museums Movement

Issues: gender equity

Resources:

Bibliography:

Museums as a Pink-Collar Profession: The Consequences and How to Address Them (March 2019)
A Call for Gender Equity in the Museum Workplace (November 2016)

Communication:

Graduate Employees' Organization 3550 (University of Michigan)

Issues: COVID-19, disability, gender equity, organizing, unions

Initiatives:

Resources:

Bibliography:

Communication:

Graduate Employees' Organization at UIUC

Issues: COVID-19, organizing, unions

Resources:

Bibliography: Member Communications

Communication:

Green Book for Libraries

Issues: BIPOC/BAME network

Resources:

Communication: Contact Form

Guggenheim Union (IUOE Local 30)

Issues: unions

Initiatives: #DoBetterGuggenheim

Communication: Twitter

Hiring Librarians

Issues: hiring, salaries

Initiatives:

Oh Hey, Share Your Salary Info Today! (August 19, 2019)
Hiring Librarians survey
Job hunter’s survey & follow-up interviews

Resources:

Salary Spreadsheet
Hiring Librarians' Library Interview Question "Database"
State of the Library Job Market (October 10, 2015)

Humanities Technology (UCLA)

Issues: internships, temporary positions

Resources: A Student Collaborators’ Bill of Rights (June 8, 2015) || ||

Communication:

Blog

IAM MAM

Issues: organizing, unions

Initiatives: Union drive at the Milwaukee Art Museum

Communication:

The Incluseum

Initiatives:

When You Worked at a Museum
& https://incluseum.com/2020/04/27/survey-on-inclusion-in-museums/ Survey on Inclusion in Museums

Resources:

Communication:

Indebted Cultural Workers

Issues: salaries & wages, signal boosting

Resources: Indebted Cultural Workers: Calculate your salary

Communication: Twitter

Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition

Issues: COVID-19, organizing, salaries, unions Initiatives: Essential Workers, Essential Rights

Resources:

Bibliography:

Communication:

Information Maintainers

Initiatives: advocacy toolkit

Bibliography: Information Maintenance as a Practice of Care: An Invitation to Reflect and Share (June 17, 2019)

Communication: Google Group

Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (UC Berkeley)

Issues: COVID-19, internships, organizing, temporary positions, unions

Initiatives:

Resources:

Bibliography:

Communication:

Institute of Museums Against All Fucked Up Social Systems

Warning: animated interface

Issues: COVID-19

Initiatives:

Anti-Museum Reading Group
I'm at a Museum During a Pandemic! Worksheet & Form
NYC Museum Re-Opening Spreadsheet

Communication:

Kenyon Student Worker Organizing Committee

Issues: organizing, unions

Initiatives: wall-to-wall union drive

Communication:

Labor Notes

Issues: unions

Resources:

Communication:

LACUNY

Issues: COVID-19, mutual aid

Initiatives: LACUNY Mutual Aid Network

Bibliography:

Libraries for All STL

Issues: COVID-19

Initiatives: We Need Libraries For All: Demand Black Lives Matter at St Louis County Libraries

Bibliography:

We Demand Transparency, Justice, and Jobs Back (August 2020)
Library eliminating part-timers, but not management (August 2020)
Kristen Sorth is Harming Our Community — American Libraries Association Must Rescind Leadership Award (September 2020)

Communication:

LibrariesResist

Issues: COVID-19, mutual aid

Resources:

Labor, Staffing, Training (filed under "Management" 🤔)
Resisting in Library Work
Health and Pandemics

Communication:

Library Salaries Inequity

Issues: salaries

Resources: resource list

Make the Road New York

Issues: COVID-19, organizing

Initiatives:

Resources:

Bibliography:

150 Días Después de: Desempleadxs y Excluidxs / 150 Days Later: Unemployed & Excluded (August 2019)
Excluded in the Epicenter: Impacts of the COVID Crisis on Working Class Immigrant, Black, and Brown New Yorkers (May 2020)
Amazon's Dangerous Jobs (November 2019)
Beyond Amazon: Reshaping New York’s Approach to Economic Development
Protecting Immigrant Homes: The Importance of Strengthening and Expanding Tenant Protections for Immigrant New Yorkers (April 2019)
[Coming Up Short: The State of Wage Theft Enforcement in New York https://maketheroadny.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Coming-Up-Short_-The-State-of-Wage-Theft-Enforcement-in-NY-4_8_19.pdf]

All publications

Communication:

MCAccountable

Issues: BIPOC/BAME network, organizing

Initiatives:

Our Collective Letter to the Pritzker Director of the Museum of Contermporary Art Chicago (July 2020)
An Update from MCAccountable (August 2020)

Communication:

MFA Boston Mutual Aid Fund Steering Committee

Issues: COVID-19, mutual aid, organizing

Initiatives: MFA Boston Staff Mutual Aid Fund

Resources: How to start a museum mutual aid fund

Bibliography: Open Source Solidarity: Starting a Mutual Aid Fund at Your Museum

Communication: Email

Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC)

Issues: mentoring, mutual aid

Initiatives:

Communication:

MOCAD Resistance

Issues: organizing, temporary positions

Bibliography:

Former Staff Letter (July 2020)
Calls to Action
MOCAD Resistance Artist + Art-Workers Solidarity Letter
Press packet (.zip download)
Affirming Our Commitment to MOCAD
Visitor Services
Stories
Integrity
Community Partners
Teen Council letter
Precarious Positions
The Fight Continues

Communication:

Modern Language Association

Issues: hiring, salaries, temporary positions

Initiatives:

Bibliography:

MLA Statement on the Use of Part-Time and Full-Time Adjunct Faculty Members (February 1994)
Statement on Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members (December 2003)

Communication:

Motion Picture Editors Guild (IATSE MPEG Local 700)

Issues: organizing, unions Initiatives:Education

Resources:

Bibliography:

CineMontage (journal)
Post, Coast to Coast (podcast)
Post, Proud: Organizing with the Editors Guild (documentary short)

Communication:

Movement for Black Lives

Issues: BIPOC/BAME network, COVID-19, temporary positions, unions

Initiatives:

Resources:

Policy Platforms
Mutual Aid Resources
Resources on Safety and Infiltration (.zip folder)

Communication:

Museum Detox

Issues: COVID-19, BIPOC/BAME network

Initiatives:

Museum Detox Survey
Museum Detox Coronavirus Emergency Fund (application instructions)
Museum Detox Coronavirus Emergency Fund (GoFundMe)

Resources: Coronavirus Covid-19: Information and guidance

Communication:

Museum Staff Impact During COVID-19

Issues: COVID-19

Initiatives: tracking spreadsheet

Museum Workers Speak

Issues: COVID-19, funding, mutual aid

Initiatives:

Museum Workers Relief Fund
Museum Workers Relief Fund (Bonfire shop)
2020 Museums & Race Imagine a [Radical Future virtual conference]

Resources: Resources

Bibliography: Statement (May 1, 2020)

Communication:

Music Library Association

Issues: COVID-19

Initiatives: MLA Emergency Relief Fund

Resources: MLA Survey of Personnel Characteristics (2009)

Communication:

National Council on Public History

Issues: hiring

Resources: Best Practices in Public History: Job Postings (March 2019)

Communication:

National Education Association (NEA) Center for Organizing

Issues: organizing, unions

Initiatives:

Resources:

Bibliography: Advocating for Early Childhood and Adult Educators

Communication: Contact form

National Emerging Museum Professionals Network

Issues: hiring, salaries

Initiatives:

Communication:

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Workers

Issues: unions

Communication: Twitter

New England Archivists

Issues: temporary positions

Initiatives: New England Archivists Contingent Employment Study (January 2017)

Bibliography: NEA Statement on Contingent Employment (2018)

Communication:

New Museum Union (UAW Local 2110)

Issues: COVID-19, organizing, unions

Initiatives:

Resources:

Bibliography:

Communication:

Northwest Archivists

Issues: internships

Initiatives:

Resources:

Northwest Archivists (NWA): Policy for Acceptable Job Postings

Bibliography:

NWA Policy for Acceptable Job Postings

Communication

OrganizingLIS

Issues: hiring, internships, salaries, signal boosting, temporary positions, unions

Communication: Twitter

Philadelaphia Museum of Art Union (with AFSCME DC 47)

Issues: organizing, unions

Initiatives:

Resources: Frequently Asked Questions

Bibliography:

Communication:

Postdoctoral Laborers Group

Issues: temporary positions

Resources: Postdoctoral Bill of Rights (April 9, 2019)

Communication: Google Group

Precarity in Libraries

Issues: temporary positions

Resources:

Bibliography:

Catalog Cards from the Edge: Precarity in Libraries (May 2018)
Hidden Variables: Researching While Precarious (October 2018)
Let’s talk precarity (or not): Libraries, community, and conversation (June 2019)
Perceptions and Experiences of Precarious Employment in Canadian Libraries: An Exploratory Study (September 2019)
Factors Associated with the Prevalence of Precarious Positions in Canadian Libraries: Statistical Analysis of a National Job Board (September 2020)

Communication: Twitter

Progressive Librarians Guild

Issues: salaries, temporary positions, unions

Communication:

Protect Library Workers

Issues: COVID-19, organizing

Initiatives:

Resources:

Communication:

Public Higher Education Workers

Issues: COVID-19, organizing, unions

Bibliography: Public Higher Education Workers (PHEW) Foundational Principles

Communication: Twitter

Rutgers AAUP-AFT

Issues: COVID-19, union

Initiatives:

Resources:

Bibliography:

Communication:

Society of American Archivists Accessibility & Disability Section

Issues: accessibility of work environment, disability equity, hiring, salaries, temporary positions

Resources:

Communication:

Society of American Archivists Committee on Public Awareness

Issues: salaries, signal boosting, student loan debt

Initiatives: Responses & Retrospectives series on ArchivesAWARE blog

Bibliography:

Communication:

Blog

Society of American Archivists Council

Issues: internships, volunteers

Initiatives:

Resources:

Best Practices for Internships as a Component of Graduate Archival Education (January 2014)
Practices for Volunteers in Archives (June 2014)

Bibliography: Only Paid Internships to Be Posted to the SAA Career Center (July 9, 2019)

Society of American Archivists Issues & Advocacy Section

Issues: salaries, temporary positions

Initiatives: Temporary Labor Survey

Resources: Advocacy Toolkit

Bibliography: Archivists on the Issues: Rare & Ephemeral: a snapshot of full-time New England archives jobs, 2018-2019

Communication:

Society of American Archivists Students and New Archives Professionals Section

Issues: internships, hiring

Initiatives:

Academic Internship Survey
#snaprt chats: Topics include barriers to entry into the archival profession; erasure of archival labor; labor issues in archives

Communication:

Society of American Archivists Women Archivists Section

Issues: gender equity, salaries

Resources: The 2017 WArS/SAA Salary Survey: Initial Results and Analysis

Society of California Archivists

Issues: hiring, internships, salaries, temporary positions, unions

Initiatives: Task Force on Labor Issues within the Profession (2019-2021)

Bibliography: Statement in Support of Temporary Archivists at UCLA

Communication:

Society of Southwest Archivists

Issues: salaries

Resources: Archives Regional Salary Research

Bibliography:

Archival Pay and SAA: Some Modest Proposals (April 29, 2019)
Salary Information Now Required in Job Postings (March 11, 2019)
Poor Pay in Archives: How Our National Organizations are Failing Us (March 5, 2019)

Communication:

Tactical Tech

Issues: organizing

Initiatives:

Resources:

Bibliography: Investigate (case studies)

Communication:

Tech Workers Coalition

Issues: unions

Resources:

Learning Club
Local chapters (Austin, Berlin, Boston, DC, LA, London, NYC, PDX, San Diego, Seattle, SF Bay Area, South Florida)

Communication:

UAW Local 2110

Issues: organizing, unions

Resources:

Bibliography: Getting Serious: Organizing White Collar Workers (Winter 2015)

UC-AFT Unit 17 (UC Librarians)

Issues: unions

Initiatives: Precarity, academic freedom, professional development, working conditions, housing, and the next contract

Resources:

Our website (and blog) chronicles our campaign and organizing with tools for engagement around our contract
Bargaining Timeline
Glossary of Common Terms

Communication: