Future landscape – job roles required
A critical aspect of the research survey was the investigation of future employment
needs and requirements for the library profession in Qatar. Respondents were asked to
consider a set list of library and information job roles and to select which ones they felt
were most critical to the future development of the library and information services
sector in Qatar. Respondents were allowed to pick as many options as they wanted.
There was an acknowledgement that job roles that required direct collaboration and
interaction with library users would be increasingly needed in the future. Three job titles
were selected as being particularly needed in this respect, with “Research Librarian”
being selected by 72 per cent of respondents, “Information Services Librarian” being
selected by 70 per cent of respondents, and “Liaison/Subject Librarian” being selected by
65 per cent of respondents.
One notable finding was that certain skilled technical library positions were
clustered together at the “most needed” end of the scale, whereas other skilled technical
positions were clustered together nearer to the “least needed” end of the scale.
Those scoring highly in terms of being most needed included roles such as “Arabic
Language Cataloguer” (70 per cent), “Digital Content/Electronic Resources Librarian”
(68 per cent), and Systems Librarian (68 per cent). Those with lower scores included
“English Language Cataloguer” (56 per cent), “Special Collections Librarian”
(54 per cent), “Book/Paper Conservator” (35 per cent). This seems to reflect an
anticipated shift to an increasingly digital/electronic dominated library work
environment and to an environment where the needs of the local, Arabic speaking
population will need to be given far greater prominence.
Other interesting findings from the data indicated that more librarians would be
needed for certain specific sectors with school librarians featuring prominently with 75
per cent of respondents selecting this as the most needed future job role in Qatar. This
was in fact the highest rated job role of all those that were listed.
The supplementary comments that were received for this question also seemed to
support the above narrative with several respondents stating that librarians with
information literacy and instruction job roles would be very important for the future
profession in Qatar, particularly in school and academic libraries. One respondent
stated that “Information Literacy teaching librarians is a must” whereas another noted
that “Information literacy and instruction librarians are the most important role for
school and academic libraries”.
19%
20%
17%
10%
21%
9%
4%
Less than 1 year
Between 1 and 2 years
Between 2 and 3 years
Between 3 and 5 years
Between 5 and 10 years
More than 10 years
Not applicable Figure 2.
Length of time in
current position of
employment