Strategic Identification and Analysis of Factors and Obstacles in the Application of Communication Skills among Librarians of Khuzestan's Public Libraries

Librarians in public libraries are trying to effectively disseminate diverse information to a wide range of people. Since librarians interact with a large number of potential and actual members, it is more important to address the issue of communication skills. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to do a strategic analysis of effective factors and barriers in applying communication skills among managers and librarians of Khuzestan's public libraries.

The study is applied one and in terms of nature and method of data collection is a descriptive survey and was done using SWOT model. The research population consisted of 381 managers and librarians of Khuzestan's public libraries. After distributing the questionnaire, 277 items were returned. The tool used was a researcher-made questionnaire designed with a review of the literature. Different methods of descriptive statistics were used to analyze data.

The results indicated that seven dimensions of internal factors including acceptance and trust, nonverbal communication and body language, job properties, honesty, empathy and sympathy, quantity and quality of communication, complain and anger, individual effort, as strengths and weaknesses of applying skills communicational; 5 dimensions of external factors including community and environment, managerial attitudes, training and promotion system are opportunities and threats that the librarians face in applying communication skills. Out of 36 components that were evaluated as strengths and weaknesses in 7 dimensions of internal factors, 6 components of strengths and 8 components of weaknesses were identified and the remaining 22 components were in the average condition and the mean rate was 2.986 for internal factors. Also, out of the 21 factors investigated in 5 external factors, there were 2 opportunities and 15 threats and the other 4 were in average condition and the average rate was 2.29 for external factors.

The results indicated that communication skills status among managers and librarians of Khuzestan's public libraries was in a "relatively desirable" state. So, it is worthy that remove weaknesses and take advantage of opportunities to overcome threats. In this way, public library managers and planners should seek to enhance librarians' communication skills through in-person and online courses, developing continuous training programs, developing a promotion code based on communication skills, along with persuading librarians to improve their salaries and benefits. As librarians' communication skills increase, we can see the growth in the quantity and quality of public library services.