Job Descriptions of Government Librarians in Pakistan: A Review

Miss. Saima Qutab Mphil Student, DLIS, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur Librarian, Directorate General of Mines & Minerals, Lahore Mrs. Farzana Shafique

Contents
Job description Importance and need of study Methodology Objectives of study Limitations Quantitative analysis
Basic information Job duration and age limits Job titles and scale Other job requirements

Qualitative analysis Findings and conclusion Recommendation Stakeholders

Job description

Statement of requirements for any vacant position is job description.

Importance of the study

Analysis of job advertisement and changing nature of work have been an area of interest for researchers, practitioners, educators and students since 1980s. to find demands of changing information world, a good way is to start from the investigation of job advertisements. Recruitment advertising is how the

employment market

Importance of the study

Some important reasons and benefits of job ad analysis are:

growth of the librarians positions over time, the nature of the job market, and predictions of employment trends changes in a profession & employment conditions useful guide for library student to pursue in specific careers within librarianship library school faculty for curriculum up gradation attracting students to library profession

Objectives of study
1. What type of requirements i.e. qualification, experience, skills are mentioned in job advertisements? Are these specifications made clear to identify nature of the job? 2. Which type of knowledge (LIS and other), interpersonal, behavioral and other competencies/traits are listed in Govt. sector job advertisements? 3. Are institutional types shaping the nature of the library positions and statues?

Methodology
Manipulation is used; Quantitative and qualitative research methods. Job ads advertised within the period of three years (from 1st August 2007 to 31th August 2010) Types of Govt. libraries (academic, public & special) Total 212 Job advertisements qualified on the criteria set for the study. Data were collected in the first three weeks of September, 2010.

Limitations
Geographically job posted in entire Pakistan were added yet only newspapers published from Lahore were scanned. Job ads with title of assistant librarian and above are added in study. Interviews are conducted in Lahore and Bahawaplur.

Data collection
The sources of data collection were LIS list-serves PAKLAG Lisjobs Blogs: Jobs library and information science LIS jobs blog News papers: The Dawn and The Nations (English) The Jang and the Nawa-i-waqat (Urdu)

Basic information
Source of information

100 (47%) = 27 (13%) = 85(40%) =

Newspapers (Urdu) Newspapers (English) Listserve/ Blogs

Durations of job ads appearance

1st August-2007 to 31st July 2008 = (24%) 1st August-2008 to 31st July 2009 = (30%) 1st August-2009 to 31st August 2010 = (46%)
Library type

51 64 97

Academic

138(65%)

Cities and number of ads during 3 years time span

Islamabad Karachi Rawalpindi & Sargodha Khairpur & Bahawalpur 57 21 Lahore Peshawar 45 9 5 each

7 each Faisalabad & Gujrat

4 each Sahiwal, Mardan & Hyderabad

3 each

Sukkar, Gujranawala, Taxila, DI Khan and AJK Jhelum, Jamshoro, Hafizabad, Gilgat, Dera Ghazi Khan, Darya Khan, Chichawatni, Chakwal, Bannu, Bakhar, Bahawalnagar, Attock, Kamalia, Kohat, Kotali, Larkana, Malakand, Multan, Nawabshah, Pano Aqil,

2 each

1 each

Job duration and age limits Job duration

16 (8%) ads mentioned the statues as permanent; 25(12%) as contract; 171(81%) did not mention. Information about pay package 27(13%) ads provide information about package; 185(87%) did not mention.

Job Title

Job Titles

The job titles appearing in job ads varies over span of time from traditional to emerging titles also define the nature of the job responsibilities required against them and illustrates there complexity (Khurshid 2003; Croneis and Henderson, 2002)

Librarian = Assistant librarian = Cataloger/classifier = Deputy librarian = Senior librarian = Chief librarian =

(89, 42%) ads; (66, 31%) ads; (10, 5%) ads; (8, 4%) ads; (8, 4%) ads and (6, 3%) ads.

Job Scale
Basic pay scale (BPS) is used in all provinces of Pakistan yet some different scales are used in federal area of Islamabad.

BPS-17 BPS-16 BPS-11 BPS-18 BPS-19 BPS-20

= = = = = =

48(23%) ads; 39(18%) ads; 15(7%) ads; 14(7%) ads; 13(6%) ads and 1(0.5%) ads.

Other Job Requirements

Qualification Experience Skills Behavioral traits Communication skills

Qualification
Educational requirement description is the primary information in any job ad.

Diploma & B.A (25%) MLIS = PhD = Other degrees 1(0.5%)

52

148 (70%) 6 (3%) =

Experience
Experience statement in job description is second important thing. Its is customary to state only the duration of the experience instead of nature of the experience.

1-3 years (40%) ads 4-6 years (22%) ads 7-9 years ads

= = =

85 46 14 (7%)

Skills
Computer skills Mentioned = 67 (32%) Not mentioned = 145 (68%) Library related skills Mentioned = 57 (27%) Not mentioned = 155 (73%)

Personality & communication skills

Behavioral traits
Mentioned = Not mentioned 208(98%) 4 (2%) =

Communication skills
Mentioned = Not mentioned 19(9 %) = 193

Job responsibilities
Mentioned = 11 (5%) Not mentioned = 201 (95%)

Interview Survey
Satisfaction with the contents of the job ads; Importance of effective job ad; Responsible agencies for job ad and involvement of library staff Reasons of lack of uniformity in Govt. sector job scales and titles Recommended contents for more reflective

Findings
There is no job description provided for/by Govt. sector library jobs. Basic qualification requirement is MLIS with experience of 2/3 years or sometimes without experience. Qualification remains the same in most cases, while only experience requirement increases for top management jobs. Both job titles and scales are the only source to identify the statues and nature of

Findings
There is high dissimilarities in job titles and scales against them. It is also discovered that dissimilarities in position titles and statues are somehow subjective to institution type or size and because of head of that institution. The academic libraries (College and University libraries) offer better job scales and packages.

Findings
The results show weaknesses in govt. ads i.e.
lack of uniformity in job titles; statues and requirements details; qualification regulation regarding the job title; skill requirements and nature of experience statements.

Conclusions
General job requirements neither motivate existing librarians for skill enhancement through continuing professional education nor provide assistance to LIS schools for curriculum improvement nor attract bright students to LIS education. There is intensive need of revising the job ad descriptions to improve the quality of

Recommendation
Government hiring agencies such as head of departments and librarians needed to collaborate more to play their active role in revising the job descriptions before advertising any job in LIS sector; A uniform pattern in LIS should also be adopted in terms of needed competencies and scales or other benefits offered;

Recommendation
Standard descriptions for library job requirements should be developed with the help of national and international experts. These descriptions should also be made publicly available for the guidance of library schools and young professionals; The standard job descriptions devised by the panel of experts should be strictly observed at the time of selection. This will not only standardize the govt. jobs in terms of scales and competencies

Stakeholders
National Library of Pakistan Pakistan Library Association
HQ and Provincial branches

Directorate of libraries LIS schools Individual librarians

Thanks for attention!

Mrs. Farzana Shafique: alakhdarem2001@yahoo.com Saima Qutab: saima_qutab@yahoo.com