An Assessment of Competencies of Librarians in Kerman University of Medical Sciences, ‎Iran

Improvement of services in any organization depends on the professional growth and promotion ýof knowledge and proficiency level of the employees. Accordingly, evaluation of librarian's ýknowledge and proficiency level seems to be essential. The goal of the present research was ýto study the competences of librarians of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, ý
Kerman, Iran.
The present research was of descriptive survey. The study population consisted of 67 ýlibrarians in Kerman University of Medical Science. The required information was ýgathered using the Librarian's Competencies Questionnaire which consisted of 115 ýquestions in the framework of 7 competencies. These competencies consist of management, ýclassification, organization, information services, information technology, research, and ýcommunication. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by specialists, and its reliability ýwas determined using Cronbach’s alpha (0.98). The data was analyzed using descriptive methods ýand SPSS statistical software.
The results showed that the average competency score of the librarians regarding management, ýclassification, organization, informative services, information technology, research, and ýcommunication was 4.09, 3.87, 3.61, 3.81, 3.35, and 4.17, respectively.
The findings of this research revealed that the librarians of Kerman University of Medical ýSciences obtained higher scores in communicative competencies compared with other ýcompetences. As a result, they require more knowledge and skills in competencies of research, ýinformation technology, and organization.