Changes in skills and competencies required for cataloguers

Abstract

This study, using content analysis as a research technique, aims to explore the skills and competencies currently required for cataloguers and how these skills and competencies have changed in the past forty years. Two kinds of data were analysed, including the past data - nine relevant studies covering from 1971 to 2007 and the current data - seventy-eight advertised jobs for cataloguing positions posted on nine library job listing websites in New Zealand, Australia and America from 1 October to 31 December, 2008. This study has found twenty-two skills and competencies currently required for cataloguers, of which, eighteen skills and competencies are still the same in the past forty years. Collection development, experience of job level, knowledge of culture and history, and legislative knowledge are the four new skills and competencies cataloguers should possess for their careers. The study has also revealed the increasing need of employers in looking for cataloguers who achieve interpersonal skills, personal skills, experience of integrated library management system, management skills, reference skills, and strategic management skills, and the decreasing need of libraries in seeking cataloguers who possess business processes, web development, and foreign languages skills.