Corporate library’s staff. Functions and competences

Abstract

The author clarifies the corporate library’s definition, specifies its particular qualities and distinctive features. She reviews the issues of education, competences, and advanced training of corporate library staff.The corporate libraries (during the Soviet era they were sci-tech units and trade-union libraries of organizations) are affiliated by both governmental and commercial organizations. As a result of cost optimization, the number of technical libraries decreased, while the trade union libraries completely ceased to exist. However, in every epoch, the mission of institutional or corporate library to satisfy the information needs and demands of workers and their on-the-job training. The collections of corporate libraries comprise digital resources, books, unpublished documents, periodicals and other information sources demanded by the corporate community.In fact, globally, the corporate libraries are the special libraries affiliated by companies and institutions, their units fulfilling information, cultural and educational functions and contributing to corporate efficiency improvement. In Russian library science, the corporate libraries have remained understudied; they are not represented in the Russian Library Association (RLA) or the National Library Bibliographic Classification (LBC). Meanwhile, in foreign countries, the corporate libraries have been well-established institutions with their specific features widely recognized. The author examines the problems the corporate library structure, efficiency and functionality, as well as the competences of staff, their education and experience.The competences and high qualification of corporate specialists enable them to meet information needs of corporate professionals immediately, completely and relevantly and to support strategic decisions. The author specifies the key competencies that contribute to the efficiency of corporate libraries.