Legally bound: Advancing the competencies of academic law librarians in the Philippines

Department/Unit

Libraries

Document Type

Article

Source Title

IAFOR Journal of Literature & Librarianship

Volume

9

Issue

1

First Page

94

Last Page

110

Publication Date

2020

Abstract

Law librarianship, in and of itself, is a particularly challenging field within the profession of librarianship. When law librarians must catch up on trends and developments necessary to perform well in the academic library setting, the challenges intensify. This research aims to develop the field of academic law librarianship in the Philippines by analyzing the competencies and training needs of these specialist librarians in the country. The results of this study indicate that academic law librarians are highly competent in performing tasks under core competencies, library management, reference, research and client services, collection development, and cataloging. But these same professionals are just competent in tasks related to information technology. The respondents perceive that continuing professional development and benchmarking are necessary to the furthering of their careers. Recommendations are made here to prioritize training programs on the following topics: (1) basic understanding of relevant legal systems and areas of law, (2) library instructional materials design, and (3) knowledge and navigation of legal information sources. It is these skills that are the most pressing competencies, for upskilling, identified by the librarians participating in this research. This study gathered data using a survey questionnaire, with the results analyzed using descriptive statistical tools, such as extracting means and percentages, and the use of Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient.

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Disciplines

Library and Information Science

Keywords

Law librarians—Training of—Philippines; Law librarians—Ability testing—Philippines

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