for Qatar to fill a significant number of core professional library post from countries
such as the USA and the UK where there are large numbers of suitably qualified and
experienced librarians who speak English as a first language. That only 10 per cent of
respondents were Qatari at first glance appears surprising, given that many libraries in
Qatar have been actively trying to recruit Qatari librarians. However, this is perhaps to
be expected given that the library profession in Qatar is still emerging and that there
are still comparatively few qualified and experienced Qatari librarians.
Employment information
Current landscape – type of library services. The research data confirms that the
educational sector in Qatar contains the highest proportion of librarians with 46 per
cent of respondents stating that they work in a university library and 26 per cent of
respondents stating that they work in a school library. This compares with only
8 per cent who work for the National Library, 7 per cent who work for public libraries,
and 7 per cent who work for special libraries in government departments (see Figure 1).
Current landscape – library staffing numbers. One distinctive feature of the question
that examined current staffing numbers in Qatari libraries is that most respondents
currently work in relatively small libraries. In total, 39 per cent of the respondents (the
largest category) worked in libraries that had less than five staff as compared to just 3
per cent who worked in libraries with more than 50 staff (the smallest category).
This possibly reflects the emerging nature of the profession in Qatar with many
libraries, particularly university libraries, having only been established within the last
ten to 15 years and in most cases only catering for comparatively small user populations.
Current landscape – length of employment. The results of this question pointed
towards the library workforce in Qatar being relatively new and in the process of
developing as the majority of respondents stated that they had been in their jobs
for two years or less, with 19 per cent having been in post for less than one year and
21 per cent for between one and two years. Only 9 per cent of the workforce stated that
they had been in their current posts for more than ten years.
Interestingly though, 21 per cent of respondents stated that they had worked in their
current positions for between five and ten years, which would indicate that whilst the
workforce might be relatively new, it is nevertheless not completely new and has
developed to some degree (see Figure 2).