The library profession in colleges and universities is faced with three critical problems: (1) too few high-paying positions relative to the total number of practitioners to make the profession financially attractive, (2) the highest level positions to which the majority of career librarians may aspire offer dim prospect of an adequately compensated career, and (3) an imbalance between the compensations of faculty and librarians may well be symptomatic of two equally serious problems--minimization of the role and organizational requirements of this important facet of our educational-research program and the possibility of exploitation. Table I indicates that less than 20% of the faculty are at the lowest rank of instructor while 50% of the librarians are classified in the basic rank. Many librarians will never advance beyond this position and most of those who do will go no higher than department head or branch librarian. On the other hand, approximately 50% of the faculty hold the two highest ranks--professor and associate professor. Three factors seem to exert a strong effect on librarians' compensation: (1) predominance of women in the profession. (2) large number of routine and clerical tasks performed, and (3) prevailing departmental organization which acts as a barrier to nonadministrative librarians. (NH)