The roles of Public Librarians has been changed by the rapidly changing library environment and user needs in library services. The public librarians are required a specialized, continuing education in order to perform the new works- system analysis, ...
The roles of Public Librarians has been changed by the rapidly changing library environment and user needs in library services. The public librarians are required a specialized, continuing education in order to perform the new works- system analysis, library management, local knowledge management, digital asset administration, cultural program planning, and user education, with the traditional roles of the public libraries in the public library management business. By the specialized, continuing education, the public librarians become highly qualified and professional to perform the library tasks.
In case of the privatized public libraries, the continuing education is necessary to offer their librarians the opportunities for personal or professional improvement. This is because the continuing education of librarians who work for the privatized public libraries is not mandatory, which results in the lack of professionalism as the public librarian. Thus, the privatized libraries need to provide their librarians the continuing education programs continuously and to develop the relevant programs by analyzing the demands of both privatized libraries and librarians.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the present status of the continuing education privatized public libraries for librarians and to suggest the improvement of the continuing education programs, by means of the literature review, the case study, and the survey.
The literature review considers the qualifications as the public librarian and the new roles of the librarian by the changing library environment, which suggests the new concept of the continuing education and the direction of the privatized public library.
Furthermore, this study examines the continuing education programs of the National Library of Korea and the Cooperative Repository Libraries in comparison with those of PLA(Public Library Association in the United State), CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in the United Kingdom), and ASLIB (The Association for Information Management in the United Kingdom).
Lastly, the survey targeting the librarians with the privatized public libraries is to understand the issues relative to the current state of the privatized public libraries, the suitable education contents, and guidelines. The results of the survey are summarized as follows.
First of all, the most of respondents consider the continuing education to be essential in order to improve their job performance. Second, when it comes to participation rate in the continuing education program, for nearly three years, 42.2% of respondents does not participate in the programs because of the lack of administrative support, the heavy workload, and the lack of suitable programs for librarians. Third, Although a workshop, a seminar, and an academic conference have the high participations rate in the survey, 45.8% of respondents say that those programs are not practical for field experiences due to the lack of time for education and of the connection with field experiences.
The purpose of the study is to provide the librarians working for the privatized public libraries with the solutions to the lack of suitable programs. the preferred program contents for the continuing education are about the services for the local community, Digital or IT-related programs, the library management, and the information resources management. In addition, in terms of the methods of education, a short courses, within three months, are preferred. Courses should be evaluated through the discussion, the examination, and the presentation of regular reports. After finishing the whole courses, all of those should be evaluated for the better continuing education programs.
This study is not only to analyze the problems with the continuing education program of the privatized public libraries in Korea but also to conduct the research on the solutions based on the literature review, the case studies, and the survey. This study also suggested institutional strategies for improving specialties of the privatized public librarians.
The implementation of the program is divided into two parts: the educational contents and the operation of education. In the educational contents, the privatized public libraries should construct the program contents and develop the related guidelines based on the educational needs. In addition, in terms of the operation of education, various educational methods— cyber education and on-site training by specialists or professional instructors― and the evaluation system in order are required.
As far as the institutional strategies concerned, there are the organization for the continuing education to manage the whole programs and the reward system to motivate the librarians to participate to the education.
In conclusion, this study is meaningful to suggests improvement plans for the continuing education by accepting the public librarian’s needs, which results from the literature review, the case studies, and the survey.