Designing a Competency Model for Public Library Managers (Case Study: Kerman Public Libraries)

Human resource management, and especially utilizing qualified staff and managers, is one of the concerns of management science in recent decades, libraries and information centers are not exceptions. According to scientific definitions, competence is consists of three categories, knowledge, skills and behavior.

 This study was conducted with the aim of designing a model for the competence of public library managers in the country and especially for Kerman province. The method of this applied research is qualitative with Delphi method and it has been done by combining library research and interviews with 17 managers of these libraries who have been selected by purposeful snowball sampling method.

Out of the total number of interviews, 421 indicators for competence were identified. After counting and removing duplicate codes, 34 items were obtained, which formed the three main categories (knowledge, skills, behavior). Each of the main categories was divided into four sub-categories (specialized, managerial, communication and special).

The most significant competent indicators were, Highlights include ICDL skills, public relations, a degree in librarianship and information science, Internet skills, decision-making, office correspondence, specialized softwares, content production, planning, databases, and reference interviews.