Current and required competencies of university librarians in Pakistan
| Pages | 410-425 |
| Published date | 14 November 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LM-03-2016-0017 |
| Date | 14 November 2016 |
| Author | Muhammad Umar Farooq,Ahsan Ullah,Memoona Iqbal,Abid Hussain |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,HR in libraries,Library strategy,Library promotion |
Current and required
competencies of university
librarians in Pakistan
Muhammad Umar Farooq
University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Ahsan Ullah
Government Degree College, Pindi Bhattian, Pakistan
Memoona Iqbal
Government Fatima Jinnah College for Women, Lahore, Pakistan, and
Abid Hussain
Department of Information Management,
University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is twofold: to find out the perception of university librarians
about the current and required competencies and to identify the current rank and to point out the
benchmark for competencies of library professionals at public universities in Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach –Quantitativeresearch design is used for the conductof the current
study. A structuredquestionnaire was used to collectdata. The Special Libraries Association instrument
“Competenciesfor Information Professionals of the 21st Century”wasused to design the questionnaire.
Apairedsamplet-test is used to establish whether there is any noteworthy distinction between the
current and requiredlevels of skills. Inferentialstatistic was also used and independentsample t-test and
ANOVA was usedto identify the difference in perceptionon the basis of different demographicvariables.
Findings –There is a significant gap between the perceptions of university librarians about their
present skills and required skills. The present level of skills is lower than the desired level of
competence. There is no significant relationship between the length of job (i.e. experience), grade and
skills of academic librarians. But in the case of gender, male have a higher score on the current level of
competencies while female have a higher score on the required level of skills.
Originality/value –The findings of this study are helpful for universities in the recruitment,
management and training of their librarians on the basis of required skills. Furthermore, it will be
useful for librarians in their career planning and continuing education and library schools to revise
their curriculum in accordance with needs.
Keywords Pakistan, University libraries, Academic libraries, Competencies, Competence, Skills
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The changing landscape of information and information technology and services
requires a certain level of competency from library professionals in multiple
technologies and specific products to handle the challenging works they face in
academic libraries. The impetus to cope with the needs of the twenty-first century
claims for new dimensions and tracks to make the profession distinctive with other
peer professions. Librarianship is becoming an art along with science, so it needs
personal skills such as communication skills as well as technical agility to accompany
the breakthroughs in information administration and new outlook of libraries
(Gerolimos et al., 2015). The future of academic libraries depends on the ubiquity of
Library Management
Vol. 37 No. 8/9, 2016
pp. 410-425
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0143-5124
DOI 10.1108/LM-03-2016-0017
Received 16 March 2016
Revised 21 March 2016
Accepted 14 June 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0143-5124.htm
410
LM
37,8/9
personal skills, which include innovative managerial and research-oriented beha viors
and professional skills, and information technology dominant pragmatic techniques.
The professional development programs might be a good alternative to enhance and
infuse these competencies within the library and information professionals.
Unfortunately, these programs do not cover the totality of market need.
The challenging information and research landscape of universities require diverse
competencies in information professionals. The academia has great expectations from
librarians in providing proactive services to support their research, teaching and
training programs. Such expectations generate a need for academic librarians to
enhance their competencies. An academic librarian is expected to be good in providing
the reference services, in searching literature and in preparing bibliographic tools
(i.e. professional competencies). He/she should also be equally good in communication,
negotiation and networking (i.e. personal competencies). The twenty-first century calls
for new skills, knowledge and ways of learning to prepare university librarians with
abilities and competencies to address the challenges of an uncertain and changing
world. A new skill set is needed that prepares librarians for living and working in a
complex information environment.
Libraries are an essential component of information age universities and librarians
are vital partners in creating an environment that enable students to learn through vast
resources and multiple communication channels. Teachers cannot do this alone and
university librarians are primary partners of faculty for twenty-first century learners.
Some improvements have been observed in the professional skills of youn g librarians
in Pakistan and contrary to the past, today’s Pakistani librarians seem interested to
learn and apply new information and communication technologies (ICTs) at their
institutions (Shaheen, 2010). The emergence of internet in the near past and the
application of social media in the present situation are pushing the young Pakistani
librarians of the corporate and private sectors to learn and apply ICTs in their libraries.
But the pace of this evolution is slow and limited in Pakistan.
The word competency is derived from the term “competence.”White (1959) used
the term “competence”for the first time as a factorin his theory of motivation. Then, the
terminology “competencies”was mentioned as part of formal executive development
programs (Lundberg, 1972). However,the concept of “competence”gotpopularity when it
was given preference over the traditional approach of“intelligence”as a fact to assess the
capabilities for successful results (McClelland, 1973). “Human competence”was further
connected with the idea of “performance improvement”in organizations (Gilbert, 1978).
The concept of competency is related to individual and organizational performance.
According to Okoye (2013) competencies are considered as knowledge,
understanding, skills and attitudes to perform a work effectively. These elements are
important for an individual to excel in his/her career and for an institution to grow and
succeed. United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF, 2014)
defines “competencies”as a package of behaviors that is necessary to deliver the
benchmark outcomes. UNICEF differentiated the term “competencies”from the phrase
“knowledge and skills”that covered the technical necessities for an explicit work.
In simple words, competence is the capability to do anything effectively or proficiently.
Now, competency is a learned behavior (Dwivedi, 2012) and measurable action and can
be evaluated against quantitative standards.
Competencies can be divided into different categories such as technical, managerial
skills and personalcapabilities. Cripe and Mansfield(2002) came up with a list of 31 core
skills that are generally applicable to the people working in today’s challenging and
411
University
librarians in
Pakistan
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