Competencies Needed by Public Library Staff

By Bryant, Josephine

Description
Professional Publication

Excerpt
Context: Technology has been the driving force of change, which has impacted industries and organizations worldwide. It has created an extremely knowledge-dependent society in which consumers have heightened expectations for immediate satisfaction of informational needs. Within the library profession, the roles of library staff as information providers have been reshaped by these changes. In order to effectively manage and cope with this accelerating rate of change, a clear definition and understanding of the skills needed to successfully carry out the new roles in this changing environment are required. The use of competencies has been recognized as one means of providing a clear definition for the profession.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Behavioural Competencies Needed by Public Library Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Examples / Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Toronto Public Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Examples of Competencies from the Library Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Other Work in the Library Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Lessons Learned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Steps in Implementation of a Competency-based Management System . . 18 ICT Competencies in Public Library Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Key Findings of the British Study ?Building the New library Network? . . . . 21 The Multi-Country Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Key Findings of the Multi-Country Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Difference in Use of Applications by Management and Front-line Staff . . . . 23 Home PC Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Attitude to ICT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ICT Competencies Required by Public Library Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 The Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I 1 -Competencies of the National Library of Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I 2 -Ways to build a Competency Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VII 3 -Glossary of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VIII 4 -Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IX 5 -Library ICT Competencies Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XV 6 -Results of Library ICT Competencies Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XXII References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XXXIII Questions to the reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A