The challenges and frustrations of librarians in three public libraries in Ghana

Abstract

Universities in the world have a common goal of promoting teaching, learning research and knowledge dissimenation. This common goal puts the staff of the university into different categories, basically academic (teaching and non- teaching), administrative and support staff. The categorization is often based on function. This paper, through a survey, analyses the category to which professional librarians in three Ghanaian public universities belong and the challenges concerning status, scholarship, general line of progression and frustrations they are faced with in the university set-up. Their parallel role as partners with faculty and researchers in promoting teaching, learning, research and knowledge dissemination in Ghanaian universities is also analysed. The paper concludes that much as the determination of status remains the prerogative of individual institutions, fairness should be the guiding principle so that designated non-academic professionals should not be assessed by the standards of academics while they do not enjoy the status of academics. . Keywords : Professional librarians, status, public universities, Ghana, challenges Ghana Library Journal Vol. 18 2006: pp. 57-68