13 INSTITUTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND SALARIES A. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS The gap between salaries paid in private U.S. ARL university libraries and those paid in publicly supported U.S. university libraries decreased in 2006‐07 to 6.3%, or an average of $3,943 more paid for a position in a private institution. However, the number of job categories in which average salaries in the public sector exceeded those in private university libraries continues to decrease only Heads of Circulation, Heads of Rare Books and Manuscripts, and Reference librarians with more than 14 years of experience were paid more on average in public institutions (see Table 21). B. LIBRARY SIZE Library size, as measured by the number of professional staff, is another significant determinant of salary. As a rule, the largest libraries pay the highest average salaries, not only overall, but for specific positions as well. The cutoff staffing levels used to determine the largest cohort of libraries, after declining in every year since 1995‐96, continued to hold steady at 110 in 2005‐06.7 The largest libraries, those with more than 110 staff, reported the highest average salary, $68,331, compared to $64,482 for the libraries with between 75 and 110 staff. The smallest libraries (22‐49 staff) had the third‐highest average salary of the cohorts, followed by those libraries with 50 to 74 staff. The gap between the highest paying cohort and the lowest paying cohort is $5,266, about 18% smaller than last year’s difference of $6,419 (see Table 23). The sharp decrease in the gap between highest‐paying and lowest‐paying cohorts may be related to the strengthening of the Canadian dollar relative to the U.S. dollar (see Table 4 for a list of exchange rates since 1984‐85), as 11 of the 14 Canadian ARL members have less than 74 staff. C. GEOGRAPHIC AREA The highest salaries are found in New England (see Table 25), followed by the Pacific and Middle Atlantic regions. All three areas have overall average salaries higher than $67,000, with New England averaging as high as $70,068. The U.S./Canadian exchange rate has dropped precipitously over the past three years as a result, Canada has moved from being the lowest‐paying region to the fourth‐highest‐ paying region, with an average salary in U.S. dollars of $66,100. Instead the West South Central region had the lowest average salary, with an average of $58,122. D. RANK STRUCTURE Rank structure continues to provide a useful framework for examining professional salaries in ARL university libraries. Figure 4, below, displays average salary and years of experience in the most commonly used rank structures. Readers should be aware that not all individuals have a rank that fits into the rank structure the library utilizes. Most commonly, directors may have no rank or a rank outside the structure, and it is common for non‐librarians included in the survey (business officers, personnel staff, computer specialists, etc.) to be unranked, as well. 7 In 1995-96, the largest cohort of libraries was determined based on staff over 124 in 1996-98, over 120 in 1998-99, over 115 and since 1999-2000, over 110. See Table 23.