If there isn’t a policy in place that guarantees travel funds for all librarians it’s certainly worth asking about. Unfortunately if they’re not making funds available to all librarians on a regular basis they will most likely not write it in your contract to do so for multiple years, but you would probably have good odds of getting them to pay for at least 1 conference your first year if you want/need to take a job somewhere that doesn’t offer regular conference funding. The worst that happens if you ask about it is that they say no so it’s worth a shot, professional development is integral to our profession so I’d like to think that they’d at least cough up enough for airfare to one conference.

Thanks for commenting!

To expand a little on the clothing issue, while you are in school or are still on the job hunt a good rule of thumb is only buy clothing that you can wear to work unless it’s for a special event such as a wedding etc. where you need specialized clothing, or replacing something that you have worn out. Otherwise you could end up with a huge wardrobe full of non-work clothes and are doing laundry every couple days. If you’re buying clothes that fit your personality I generally find you can mix and match your work clothes with non-work attire to great effect.

Thanks so much for sharing this very important topic. I would also add, that readers can view the lastest hiring trends/avg cost for library professionals on the ALA-APA website to help with seeing the avg cost for salaries.

In your opinion, would you advise potential staff to negotiate their salary by asking for training funds for 1 major conference as a stipulation to accepting the job offer? Again, great post. Ge Ge