期刊名称:Pakistan Journal of Library and Information Science
印刷版ISSN:1680-4465
出版年度:2011
卷号:12
出版社:University of the Punjab
摘要:Medical librarian’s work is becoming increasingly complex offering new challenges and opportunities due to constant change in the nature of health information and the needs of health professionals. It is the quality of library staff that determines the services of the library. Therefore, it is imperative for medical librarians to reshape themselves by identifying the requisite competencies to meet the information needs of medical professionals. Considerable work, beginning with the King report (1986) has been done to identify competencies required by information professionals in general and to forecast those that will be needed to equip them for change. The literature available at this time does not adequately deal with the issue related to medical librarians. The present study was planned to bridge that gap. The objective of this study was to identify competencies for librarians working in the medical libraries of Pakistan and to validate these based on the perceptions of head librarians and library coordinators of these libraries. The survey method was used to achieve the objectives of this study. A structured questionnaire, listing needed competencies, was prepared based on the literature presently available. The list was reviewed by a panel of experts for content validation. It was pilot-tested on a group of head librarians and library coordinators who were not part of the sample. A 5-point Likert scale was used for validation of competencies. The questionnaire, based on 84 competency statements covering eight areas, was distributed among the head librarians and library coordinators in 115 medical libraries. The study is based on the response of 67 (58%) head librarians and 63 (55%) library coordinators. Relevant descriptive and inferential statistics have been used for data analysis using SPSS.