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.

Role of libraries in research

The Role of the Library in Research is as significant as the role of the library in other academic areas. The role of the library in research is pivotal, libraries have in-depth resources in the form of books, journals, magazines, articles, and bibliographies.

Pictures of magazines and books

Libraries offer space for students to learn and provide an excellent environment for research. Libraries have staff that can help students in locating the information that a researcher might need. In addition to this, most libraries today have systematic digitized information. Unless libraries provide digital access to books, they cannot maintain their importance in the current information age. In recent research, it was reported that electronic and digital services are the most important service that a library can provide to its students. The digital library is a new trend and has added convenience for the students to search for any information. Though there is still a need to provide other research-related support and services to students to be more effective.

The most common way to start your research is to have a tour of your local library or online library database. You need to know about the reference room, the card catalog, the periodicals, and the information desk. In this way, you will be able to understand the organization of the library and how you can get help from there.

Libraries serve at least three roles in learning. First, they serve a practical role in sharing expensive resources. Physical resources such as books and periodicals, films and videos, software and electronic databases, and specialized tools such as projectors, graphics equipment, and cameras are shared by a community of users. Human resources--librarians (also called media specialists or information specialists) support instructional programs by responding to the requests of teachers and students (responsive service) and by initiating activities for teachers and students (proactive services). Responsive services include maintaining reserve materials, answering reference questions, providing bibliographic instruction, developing media packages, recommending books or films, and teaching users how to use materials. Proactive services include selective dissemination of information to faculty and students, initiating thematic events, collaborating with instructors to plan instruction, and introducing new instructional methods and tools. In these ways, libraries serve to allow instructors and students to share expensive materials and expertise.

Second, libraries serve a cultural role in preserving and organizing artifacts and ideas. Great works of literature, art, and science must be preserved and made accessible to future learners. Although libraries have traditionally been viewed as facilities for printed artifacts, primary and secondary school libraries often also serve as museums and laboratories. Libraries preserve objects through careful storage procedures, policies of borrowing and use, and repair and maintenance as needed. In addition to preservation, libraries ensure access to materials through indexes, catalogs, and other finding aids that allow learners to locate items appropriate to their needs.

Third, libraries serve social and intellectual roles in bringing together people and ideas. This is distinct from the practical role of sharing resources in that libraries provide a physical place for teachers and learners to meet outside the structure of the classroom, thus allowing people with different perspectives to interact in a knowledge space that is both larger and more general than that shared by any single discipline or affinity group. Browsing a catalog in a library provides a global view for people engaged in specialized study and offers opportunities for serendipitous insights or alternative views. In many respects, libraries serve as centers of interdisciplinarity--places shared by learners from all disciplines. Digital libraries extend such interdisciplinarity by making diverse information resources available beyond the physical space shared by groups of learners. One of the greatest benefits of digital libraries is bringing together people with formal, informal, and professional learning missions. MORE

libraries have a great role in research, they can help us in finding new knowledge and extend existing knowledge by carrying research. Different libraries 

Reference:

http://researcharticles.com/index.php/role-library-research/

https://ils.unc.edu/~march/cacm95/mainbody.html