Forgotten anything: library staff competencies for the learning commons

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate which skills library managers think their staff should possess as their organisational culture alters to meet the demands of a changing internal and external TAFE environment and user needs. A survey is used to ascertain what library managers believe needs to be included as a recognisable competency for their staff to perform their work. The survey contains 20 broad categories of skills listed under five main areas. A total of 18 TAFE Libraries are used in the survey. Data are entered into Excel. Tabulation consolidates the list of 200 skills and/or comptencies. Comments are also collected at part of the investigation The perception that having as many competencies as possible is highly indicative of a well rounded, service focused and broadly informed library staff member. Of the library managers, 64 per cent strongly agreed that finding and using print and online resources was an important skill to possess; 93 per cent agree that library staff should maintain a healthy work-life balance; and 79 per cent agreed that staff should understand the performance standards relating to their position. The paper illustrates that the team is greater than the sum of its parts.