Competencies for teacher librarians in Malaysia

Abstract

The research study was undertaken to discover the role of teacher librarians in secondary schools as perceived by three groups of people directly involved in school librarianship — teacher librarians, library educators and education officers. The study also aimed to determine the essential competencies and the education required for teacher librarians to perform the role. The instrument for the study was developed based on the competency statements and established guidelines which had been used in other studies similar to this. A Likert-scale type questionnaire comprising 10 role statements, 61 competency statements and 10 personal competency statements was mailed to three groups of 20 teacher librarians, library educators and education officers. Seventeen teacher librarians, 12 library educators and 18 education officers responded to the survey. The ratings were tabulated to determine the roles and competencies considered essential. Competencies that met the C.O.T.E standard were regarded as essential. It was found that the majority of the respondents agreed with the listed roles of teacher librarians. Based on the C.O.T.E standard, only 17 out of the 61 proposed competencies were considered essential by at least 51% of the survey respondents. Librarian-oriented competencies such as utilizing classification principles, applying standards and guidelines to develop library collection and preparing and maintaining the library catalogue received the highest ratings by the respondents. Skills related to management, information services and technology such as establishing goals and utilizing automation were ranked higher by library educators. Developing a budget and managing the library's financial affairs were rejected as essential. The research study has also identified areas of need for future planning initiatives in the training and education for the teacher librarians.