Competency Definition for Iranian Library and Information Professionals

Abstract

This study evaluates attitudes of library educators, library managers and librarians towards the competencies that Iranian professional librarians should have. A questionnaire including ninety-three statements was distributed among the above groups and in different types of libraries. The results show that respondents are highly concerned with knowledge related to cataloging, information services, circulation, collection development and serials, respectively. They also gave high priority to skills of information services, cataloging, circulation, serials and collection development. The statistical tests show that there are no differences in attitudes among library educators, library managers and librarians toward competency needs. However, differences in attitudes among different types of libraries, such as academic, public and special libraries, are significant. The study concludes that despite the importance given to information services, cataloging competencies are still regarded as important for Iranian librarians.