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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
1995
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED382197 |
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Table of Contents:
- Library Support Staff in an Age of Change: Utilization, Role Definition and Status. ERIC Digest. Oberg, Larry R. Certification Continuing Education Librarians Library Education Library Personnel Library Services Library Technicians Paraprofessional Personnel Salaries Staff Role Status Staff utilization, role definition and articulation, task overlap, educational requirements, certification, and status have been difficult issues within the library profession for most of this century, and remain mostly unresolved today. Over the past 20 years, library automation and declining budgets have caused the redistribution of the library workload, and given rise to this new category of employee, the paraprofessional, a position which has been largely uninhibited by associational policy or guidelines. Today, paraprofessionals administer major functional areas in the library, are assigned reference and information desk duties, perform a variety of systems work, and catalog most of the books added to collections, coming to dominate the technical service workforce. In the future, an increase in both tasks and responsibilities can be expected. This task overlap with professional librarians raises issues concerning salary, status, and professional education. A growing consensus suggests that the roles of librarians and support staff must be redefined, but before support staff roles can be put in order, librarians must first redefine their own roles. While agreement exists that the roles of all library staff must be clarified, the same issues remain unsolved: staff utilization, role definition, qualifications, and status. (Contains 10 references.) (MAS)