Effective for Academic Year 2025-2026
The Pay Guidelines below are intended to assist University Library Supervisors in determining the pay rate for their Graduate Hourly student positions. Graduate Hourly Rates are determined by the duties. Please work with the University Library Business Office for questions regarding funding.
The Graduate Hourly groupings below were created in comparison to the Student Employment Guidelines that are for Undergraduate student employees. The maximum hourly rate is the hourly equivalent of the Graduate Assistant rate for the Academic Year. *Note: Graduate Hourly position rates are determined by the duties of the position, not just because they hold a PGA position. (Example: Student Assistant duties/Semi-skilled, paid at a student assistant/semi-skilled rate)
To assist University Library Supervisors in determining the Pay Rate for their positions, groupings and examples of position duties are provided as references. Various functional areas of user services, technical services, and specialized fields of study and career preparation are referenced within the duties. Graduate Hourly wage increases are based upon length of service and merit or superior performance. Increases are subject to supervisory approval. https://cam.illinois.edu/policies/hr-01/
As a reminder, job descriptions must be uploaded with any new JOYCE request. JOYCE ‘edit’ actions should include a note describing the purpose/justification of the edit.
Group A
Semi-skilled: $15.00-$18.50 per hour
Work requiring some experience or education; all training done on the job
Stocking/inventorying supplies; shifting materials; preparation of physical materials for transport/accessioning; basic ALMA transactions; assisting patrons with routine requests; database searches; basic webpage maintenance; assisting with exhibit displays; basic graphic design; assisting with events; paging, reshelving, or retrieving materials.
Group B
Semi-professional: $16.00-$22.49 per hour
Work requiring intermediate skills or education within the field in which you’ll be employed or in which you specialize
Research, teaching, counseling; data analysis; qualitative and/or quantitative research methods; interdepartmental and/or interlibrary collaboration; write, proof, and edit various communication materials; support acquisition of archival materials; conduct preliminary review and inventorying of archival materials; draft new, or suggest additions to, archival finding aids; conduct preliminary archival research; guides researchers in their preliminary use of archival materials; works with limited supervisory oversight; assist with reference and research requests; supervising student workers; social media management (content creation, editing, scheduling, etc.); creation/maintenance of workflows and other documentation, both for administrative and end-user purposes.
Group C
Technical: $15.00-$31.03 per hour
Work requiring prior experience or education
Technical office or laboratory work involving specific skills and/or techniques; creation/maintenance of workflows and documentation; digitization of materials; digital imaging; maintaining lab safety; collection environment monitoring; disaster recovery operations; triaging materials; quality control; minor and intermediate conservation treatments; using optical character recognition software to create searchable text; stabilization and rehousing of materials; creating automation code for curating; technical text encoding
Group D
Paraprofessional/professional: $22.50-$31.03 per hour
Work requiring advanced skills, experience, or education specific to the field in which you’ll be employed or in which you specialize
Creation/refinement/maintenance of workflows and documentation; coordinating with collection contributors; creating lesson guides, selecting topics for primary source sets; participating in instruction activities and/or workshops; coordination of circulation account troubleshooting; lead worker in physical and digital exhibits (selecting items, researching, writing narrative, assisting in curation and publishing); working in close contact with supervisors to establish archival processing plans, provide all levels of review, inventorying, and weeding of acquisitions as part of execution of a processing plan; arranging and describing collections of historical documents or museum artifacts according to accepted standards; creating or updating detailed descriptive archival finding aids; conducting detailed archival research and training; assisting in the creation of on-line finding aids, exhibitions, tours, and public programs; coordinating and supporting requests for digital content; support publishing and creating of Information Action Briefs (IAB); metadata work; assess collections and determine recommendations and/or ordering new materials for collections; collection maintenance; creating summaries and author descriptions of materials; conducting surveys and analyzing data; copy cataloging; assisting with original cataloging; reviewing and correcting catalog records; creating and updating Lib Guides; support outreach, engagement, and/or marketing initiatives; basic in-house stabilization of rare materials; prepare promotional materials; higher level inspection and quality control of materials/files; complex adaptions to bibliographic records in complex formats and/or resolves complex bibliographic problems; drafting articles under direction of Principle Investigators; participate in preparing an extensive scholarly publication; assist with assessment and evaluation of potential donations; serve as primary building supervisor when necessary
For questions, please contact Library HR at libraryhr@library.illinois.edu