A Study on the Skills and Capabilities of Digital Librarians: A Case of Librarians at Tabriz Academic Libraries

This research, which is a case study of the librarians of academic libraries in Tabriz universities, has aimed at surveying the skills and capabilities of digital librarians. The sample society of this experimental research consisted of the librarians of Tabriz University, Tabriz Medical Sciences University, and the Islamic Azad University of Tabriz. In this research 100 librarians from the above-mentioned universities answerd a questionnaire. The questionnaire included seven main skills needed for digital librarians: educational skills, research skills, management skills, information skills, Internet skills, personality skills, and computer skills. Each main skill consisted of some sub-skills which were identified theough reviewing the related texts. The findings show that the average digital skill importance scale is 180, the average digital skill importance is 251.54, and the average digital skill capability is 180.39. This means that the average capability is the closest to the standard average. Also, only 52% of the surveyed librarians are highly capable of digital skills. Whereas 90% of librarians think having digital capabilities is important. It can be said that the digital skills among the surveyed librarians were low, though a high percentage of them are aware of the importance of the digital skills.