Job analysis of academic librarians in Greece: Investigating differences among institutions regarding obligations and responsibilities

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify the obligations and responsibilities of librarians, working in Greek academic libraries and to investigate whether there are significant differences among various institutions. The survey was based on a questionnaire containing 161 duties performed by academic librarians, classified into five main categories which are: general management, collection management, materials organization, user service and system management. The respondents were 31 managers at Greek academic libraries, who were asked to assess their duties according to importance, difficulty and frequency, and whether such tasks were deemed professional, para-professional or non-professional. A two-way ANOVA was applied to determine whether performed duties significantly differed according to institution size and/or type. The results revealed no significant differences regarding importance of duties while many differences were detected across all main categories regarding difficulty. Differences were also recorded concerning the frequency of duties for some of the subcategories under general and collection management, materials organization and the subcategory cultural events and programs. Finally, professional duties represented 86 percent of total duties, indicating the necessity of professional librarians for the effective management of their responsibilities. These findings, which are first recorded in Greece and refer to academic librarians’ duties, will be particularly useful for decision makers to reach the right decisions regarding the implementation of human resource practices, taking into account the individuality of the institutions under consideration. Also these outcomes can be viewed as a valuable guide for adapting the indicated decisions under the rapidly introduced technological changes and properly tackling problems stemming from the economic recession.