While median Beginning Professional Salaries (BPS) have continued to increase for both academic and non-academic ARL librarians, their gains are stronger compared to the last reporting period (2007-08). Median BPS for ARL academic librarians rose from $41,125 (2007–08) to $44,000, which was an increase of 6.6% (there was only an increase of 2.8% in 2007–08). ARL non- academic librarians experienced a larger BPS rise of 8.4% (from a 2007–08 median BPS of $44,359 to $48,108 in 2008–09). The U.S. dollar continued to decline in value during the salary survey period of July 2007–June 2008. For this study an exchange rate of 1.0101 used to convert it into Canadian currency.1 This is the lowest value recorded for the U.S. dollar in a twenty-six year period. One ancillary effect of the declining worth of the U.S. dollar was a corresponding rise in median salary of Canadian ARL academic librarians (especially when converted to US dollars). Converted to US dollars, Canadian median salary ($77,954) increased 15.8%, four times more than the 3.8% salary increase of their US peers ($63,673). As a result, the continuing decline of the U.S. dollar increased the value of the median salary of Canadian ARL academic librarians. Geographical region, public or private status of a university, and library staff size all influenced the average salary of ARL academic librarians. When judged by geographic regions, Canadian academic librarians enjoyed the largest salaries ($82,295) with the regions of New England, Pacific, and Middle Atlantic (respectively) having the next highest average salaries. U.S. librarians in private ARL universities earned 7% more than their peers in U.S. ARL public universities, with ARL private university librarians reporting an average salary of $72,287 compared to the ARL public university average salary of $67,509. Library size influenced salary: university libraries with a staff size over 110 made the highest average salary of $73,135 with university libraries with a staff size of 50–74 reporting the lowest average salary of $68,141 (a difference of 7.3%). Academic librarians in libraries with a staff size of 75–110 earned an average of $71,063, while university libraries with a staff size of 22–49 had an annual average of $70,287. During this reporting period, the ARL university library workforce consisted of 63% females (5,337), with males (3,127) comprising 37% of the total. However, men were paid more than women. In ARL university libraries men reported an average salary of $72,344, while women made 3.8% less (an average salary of $69,610). This can be seen as an improvement since in RLI 266 18 ARL Salary Survey Highlights ( C O N T I N U E D ) OCTOBER 2009 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC