SKILLS OF LIBRARIAN

 Librarians handle the everyday functions, organization, and customer interactions of public and private libraries. To help the library run efficiently and better serve the library's patrons, librarians rely on certain skills. If you are interested in joining the library field or would like to further develop your skills, understanding more about essential librarian skills we can help you determine what areas are crucial for you. in this post, we describe what librarian skills are in the industry, provide examples of hard and soft skills and discuss how to improve librarian skills.

LIBRARIAN SKILL

Librarian skills are industry hard skills and transferrable soft skills that librarians bring to their work at a library. Hard skills refer to industry-specific skills, such as using library software or understanding how to categorize information. Soft skills refer to skills that can transfer from one industry or job to another, such as punctuality, critical thinking, or time management. Librarians use a variety of skills during the workday to organize and improve the library, help patrons find information and categorize books, movies, and other media.

1. Ability to embrace change: Our patron populations are rapidly changing as are the technologies for serving them. We need to look at how we are serving our patrons and change our strategies if what we are doing is not working (or is not the best we could be doing). Change should be looked upon as an exciting thing — as a positive thing. We should fear not providing the best services to our patrons much more than we should fear change.
2. Comfort in the online medium: Librarians need to do so much online these days, way beyond basic catalog and database searching (which sure isn’t easy either). Librarians have to be able to use search engines and use them well. They need to be able to find quality online resources. They need to help patrons set up e-mail and teach basic Internet skills. They need to be able to troubleshoot problems users are having to access online library resources, at least to the extent where they can figure out if the problem is on the library’s side or the user’s side. Reference librarians are often providing reference services online via e-mail and synchronous chat. More important than knowing specific tools is a general comfort in the online medium. You just can’t provide reference services without basic Internet and search skills.
3. Ability to troubleshoot new technologies: Librarians should be able to play with the library technologies, learn what problems commonly come up, and fix them if necessary because it is often our responsibility to fix them in addition to this they should have the ability to know new technologies.
4. Ability to keep up with new ideas in technology and librarianship (enthusiasm for learning): Keeping up with new technology is often not an explicitly listed part of one’s basic weekly job duties, but its importance can’t be stressed enough. Five years ago, few people were talking about blogs and IM in libraries, but now so many libraries are using these tools to provide services to patrons. We need to be able to keep up with what’s new in technology and what libraries are (or could be) doing with it. And we need to be able to keep up in the shortest time possible because we are busy. Try and take some time out of your busy schedule to keep up, whether you are reading the professional literature, browsing blogs, or attending a Webcast. skills of a librarian
   
   
   

 HIGHER-LEVEL COMPETENCE: Librarians need strong communications skills to assist library users, plan programs, and train support staff. They should be comfortable communicating effectively with diverse groups of people of all ages and those from different countries and cultures. Librarians need to carefully listen to customers to learn what they are looking for so that they can provide them with electronic and print resources.