Jean Arnot Memorial Fellowship

Last Friday, I was awarded the  Jean Arnot Memorial Fellowship for my paper Why Learning about emerging technologies is part of every librarian’s job (WORD doc).

The fellowship is awarded to a female librarian or female student of librarianship for an outstanding original paper of no more than 5000 words on any aspect of librarianship.

The award is administered by the State Library of New South Wales and describes Jean’s legacy thus:

Jean Fleming Arnot, MBE, FLAA, a former staff member of the State Library of New South Wales, who retired as head cataloguer in 1968 after a distinguished career of over 47 years of service. Miss Arnot was active in women’s organisations and a pioneer in the campaign for equal pay.

The Jean Arnot Memorial Fellowship is funded by a generous donation from the National Council of Women of New South Wales Incorporated and the Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Associations Incorporated as a memorial to Miss Arnot and her achievements.

Equal Pay for Equal Work

Jean Arnot began as an apprentice librarian at the Public Library of New South Wales (as it was then known)  in 1921. She retired in 1968, the year that I was born. For 42 years – just over how long I have been alive – she was paid less than men in the organisation, even those in less senior positions.   In 1952, for example, when Jean Arnot was Head Cataloguer at the Public Library, she was paid 1009 pounds p.a. Her deputy, Mr Bolt, was paid 1101 pounds p.a ( NSW Office of Equal Opportunity in Public Employment (1998) Pay Equity Case Study: Librarians and Geologists. OEOPE, Sydney p31 cited in the Schmidmaier  article below) . It was only the last 5 years of her career that she received equal pay.

Although women within Miss Arnot’s organisation eventually received the same payment as men within the organisation, this did not mean that professionals in this female dominated workplace were paid the same as professionals in male dominated workplaces. I have no idea whether Jean Arnot’s example was an inspiration for those who pushed for what became the  Pay Equity Enquiry 1996 – 1998, but her efforts surely  paved the way. It was not until 28 March 2002 that a decision was handed down in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission that librarians in the State Public Service should be paid the same as other professions. The practical result of this was pay rises of up to 25% for librarians. That’s just seven years ago. I agree with Dagmar Schmidmaier , who was CEO of the State Library of New South Wales during this period:

librarians need to be absolutely vigilant and take advantage of all opportunities to ensure that the undervaluation of their profession does not occur again.

For more on Jean Arnot and the New South Wales pay equity case please see Dagmar Schmidmaier  and Anne Doherty’s paper presented at the World Library and Information Congress:  71th (sic) IFLA General Conference and Coucil,  Pay equity for the library profession: a State Library of New South Wales perspective.