The Survey of the Viewpoint of Heads of Divisions at Central Libraries of Iranian Universities About Their Professional Duties, Knowledge And Competencies

Document Type : پژوهشی

Authors

• zahra tahavori
• rahmatollah Fattahi

10.22067/fe.v5i2.1993

Abstract

This survey investigates the attitudes of chief librarians at different departments of central libraries in Iranian universities regarding their expected duties, knowledge, skills and capabilities. A questionnaire was sent to 245 chief librarians and ANOVA and T-test were used to analyze the collected data. Findings are as follows:
The most important "common duties" of the chief librarians are expected to include writing, evaluating and correcting the task guidelines, monitoring the task processes, teaching workshops, encouraging their colleagues to participate at seminars, and arranging some regular meetings. The most important common job specifications for the chief librarians are expected to include leadership and management capabilities, communication skills, the ability to use library softwares, the ability to work in critical situation, and being creative. The most important "special duty" of every chief librarians in different departments are expected to include: Monitoring the acquisitions process (acquisitions dept), getting information about new editions of cataloging resources (technical services), planning for reference services (periodicals dept), monitoring the circulations process (leading and coordinating the eirculations affairs) (circulation dept). The major "special job specifications" in different departments are: The knowledge about the publishing market and related laws Acquisitions dept). Knowledge and skills in descriptive and analytical cataloging of all types of resources (reference dept), skills to use serials control software (serials dept), control over loan fines (circulations dept). The findings also showed that there was a slight difference between the viwponts of the tow groups of the chief librarians (BA. And MLA) about the "common duties" and "common job specifications".

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