2008 Survey on Learning and Development Needs
IFLA Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section
Survey 2008 on learning and development needs
Report to Standing Committee IFLALibrary and Research Services for Parliaments Section
29 January 2009
Background
The StandingCommittee of the section formed a sub-committee at its meeting on 14 August2008: ·
· To investigate the learning and development needs of those employed in Library andResearch Services in Parliaments. ·
· To review programmes that could be offered by the section, in particular throughor held in conjunction with section pre-conferences. ·
· To prepare a report for the Standing Committee on learning and development needs and possible section activities.
The Section provideslearning and development opportunities through the annual pre-conference andevents associated with the IFLA conference. The sub-committee was interested inexploring whether additional training should be offered in conjunction with thepre-conference, and was keen to get the views of members and parliamentarylibrarians and heads of research services that could be members of the sectionin order to consider possible training days.
The report isprovided to the Section Committee to enable a review to recommend futuresection events and individual research and library services may find theresults useful for planning events in their region or subject area.
The survey was distributed in early December 2008 and while responses were soughtby mid December, it was kept open to 27 January 2009.
Executive summary
Respondents came from the research and parliamentary library areas – approximately 27% indicatedthat their role was “research”, 73% “General management of library/researchservices”.Mostparticipated in section and IFLA major events. Approximately 73% or respondentsattended IFLA section preconferences or IFLA annual meetings regularly or occasionally.Mostpreferred to have training and development provided at the sectionspreconference (more than 86%).
The areas most highly desired for training and development are:
Research and Library skills
|
New digital technologies (web 2.0) |
4.18 |
|
Digitising material in your collection |
4.12 |
|
Intranet management |
3.83 |
|
Digitisation overview |
3.8 |
Management and general job skills
|
Statistics and evaluation |
3.76 |
|
knowledge management |
3.71 |
|
Strategic management |
3.68 |
|
Change management and communications |
3.67 |
Areasmost suggested for subject/other training were:
|
Statistics |
5 |
|
Government documents |
5 |
|
Law/legislative process/comparative law |
4 |
Preferred delivery method.
|
Group |
4.45 |
|
Practical exercises |
4.38 |
Roxanne Missingham, Susan Mansfield, RaissaTeodori, Iain Watt Members, Subcommittee on Learning and Development Needs
Survey ResultsRespondents
22 responses were received to the survey by 27 January 2009.
Responses were received from staff in library and research services for Parliaments from:
Brazil
Canada (Ontario)
Czech Republic
Finland
Germany
Iceland
Kiribati
Norway
Pakistan
Poland
Slovakia
Solomon Islands
Switzerland
Thailand
Ukraine
USA
Zambia
Question 1. Which area doyou primarily work in?
(note: response allowed to more than one option)
|
General management of library/research services |
16 |
|
Research |
6 |
|
Library management |
8 |
|
technical services/cataloguing |
7 |
|
reference/enquiries |
14 |
Detailsprovided for “research subject area”:
sociology,
general management of library services
Comments in “other”:
consultation on development of policy analysis and research services
network services
also Director of cataloguing and processing
Question 2: Do you attend section preconferences?
|
|
8 |
|
occasionally |
6 |
|
never |
8 |
Question 3: Do you attend the IFLA annual meeting?
|
|
7 |
|
occasionally |
7 |
|
never |
8 |
Question 4: Likely toattend training
|
in my country |
16 |
|
in my continent |
16 |
|
internationally |
13 |
|
at a pre-conference |
19 |
|
at an IFLA annual meeting |
15 |
Question 5: Research andLibrary skills: level of need
Scale 1-5, 5 being highest need
|
|
Rating
|
Total responses |
Average rating |
average responses / all survey respondees |
||||
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
|
|
|
Research methods |
2 |
4 |
6 |
3 |
4 |
19 |
3.16 |
2.73 |
|
Comparative/country research |
1 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
19 |
3.37 |
2.91 |
|
writing research papers |
4 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
5 |
17 |
3.12 |
2.41 |
|
citing sources and creating bibliographies |
6 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
17 |
2.18 |
1.68 |
|
commissioning external research |
4 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
17 |
2.82 |
2.18 |
|
conducting surveys |
1 |
7 |
2 |
5 |
5 |
20 |
3.30 |
3.00 |
|
cataloguing skills and standards |
7 |
6 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
19 |
2.37 |
2.05 |
|
catalogue systems - open source |
4 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
18 |
3.00 |
2.45 |
|
catalogue systems |
7 |
6 |
0 |
4 |
2 |
19 |
2.37 |
2.05 |
|
collection management/development |
3 |
6 |
6 |
1 |
4 |
20 |
2.85 |
2.59 |
|
negotiating and managing contracts for electronic resources |
2 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
8 |
19 |
3.74 |
3.23 |
|
subject indexing and metadata |
3 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
19 |
3.21 |
2.77 |
|
website design, development & maintenance |
3 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
18 |
3.06 |
2.50 |
|
writing web pages |
5 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
18 |
2.89 |
2.36 |
|
internet searching |
2 |
5 |
4 |
6 |
2 |
19 |
3.05 |
2.64 |
|
intranet management |
0 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
7 |
18 |
3.83 |
3.14 |
|
marketing your library |
2 |
4 |
3 |
5 |
7 |
21 |
3.52 |
3.36 |
|
marketing your research service |
1 |
3 |
3 |
6 |
5 |
18 |
3.61 |
2.95 |
|
Digitising material in your collection |
0 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
20 |
4.10 |
3.73 |
|
Digital collections - open source software |
1 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
8 |
18 |
3.78 |
3.09 |
|
Managing electronic journals |
3 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
8 |
19 |
3.63 |
3.14 |
|
Parliamentary processes |
3 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
8 |
20 |
3.45 |
3.14 |
|
Digitisation overview |
1 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
9 |
20 |
3.80 |
3.45 |
|
New digital technologies (web 2.0) |
0 |
0 |
4 |
6 |
7 |
17 |
4.18 |
3.23 |
Themost desired development areas were as follows:
Highest average rating, overall rating above 4
|
New digital technologies (web 2.0) |
4.18 |
|
Digitising material in your collection |
4.12 |
The next highest ranked were:
|
Intranet management |
3.83 |
|
Digitisation overview |
3.8 |
Highest number of “5”’s given
|
Digitising material in your collection (11) |
Respondents suggested the following areas of training in specific subject areasand also additional areas as follows:
|
Suggested area |
Rating |
|
|
|
|
Number of respondents |
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
|
Statistics |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
|
Government documents |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
5 |
|
Law/legislative process/comparative law |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
|
Business |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
|
Economics |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
|
E-information |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Parliamentary education |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
GIS |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
EU information |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Sociology |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
archiving parliamentary papers |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
anticorruption |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
gender analysis |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
parliament related IT |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
database management |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
sharing resources |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
finding parliamentary documents (Nordic countries) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
European union issues |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Information retrieval technology |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Internet evaluation |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
skills in guiding a reference query to specific client needs |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
Management techniques |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Question 6: Managementand general job skills: level of need
Scale 1-5, 5 being highest need
|
|
Rating
|
Total responses |
Average rating |
average responses / all survey respondees |
||||
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
|
|
|
customer service |
4 |
2 |
8 |
3 |
4 |
21 |
3.05 |
2.91 |
|
Strategic management |
4 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
10 |
22 |
3.68 |
3.68 |
|
Writing a business case |
7 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
5 |
20 |
2.75 |
2.50 |
|
project management |
3 |
2 |
1 |
9 |
5 |
20 |
3.55 |
3.23 |
|
change management and communications |
2 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
9 |
21 |
3.67 |
3.50 |
|
supervision and staff management |
4 |
0 |
4 |
6 |
6 |
20 |
3.50 |
3.18 |
|
team leadership |
3 |
2 |
5 |
7 |
5 |
22 |
3.41 |
3.41 |
|
statistics and evaluation |
2 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
9 |
21 |
3.76 |
3.59 |
|
library accommodation planning |
6 |
2 |
0 |
7 |
4 |
19 |
3.05 |
2.64 |
|
library policy writing |
6 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
6 |
20 |
2.85 |
2.59 |
|
Intranet management |
2 |
5 |
5 |
1 |
6 |
19 |
3.21 |
2.77 |
|
grant writing |
6 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
6 |
19 |
2.89 |
2.50 |
|
planning and budgeting |
4 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
7 |
20 |
3.35 |
3.05 |
|
contract management |
4 |
1 |
6 |
1 |
7 |
19 |
3.32 |
2.86 |
|
knowledge management |
2 |
2 |
2 |
9 |
6 |
21 |
3.71 |
3.55 |
|
performance measurement |
3 |
4 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
19 |
3.16 |
2.73 |
|
library leadership |
3 |
2 |
3 |
8 |
6 |
22 |
3.55 |
3.55 |
|
time management/organisation skills |
2 |
4 |
6 |
4 |
5 |
21 |
3.29 |
3.14 |
|
presentations/public speaking |
3 |
3 |
9 |
1 |
5 |
21 |
3.10 |
2.95 |
Highest average rating, overall rating above 3.6
|
statistics and evaluation |
3.76 |
|
knowledge management |
3.71 |
|
Strategic management |
3.68 |
|
change management and communications |
3.67 |
Highest number of “5”’s given
|
Strategic management |
10 |
|
statistics and evaluation |
9 |
|
change management and communications |
9 |
Othersuggestions:
Humanresource management of public service (1 response rating it 5)
Ethicsin Government (1 response rating it 5)
Copyrightproblems (1 response rating it 5)
Question 7: Delivery method.
Please identify which deliverymethods you prefer for training. Scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the mostpreferred method.
|
|
Rating
|
Total responses |
Average rating |
average responses / all survey respondees |
||||
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
|
|
|
Group |
0 |
0 |
3 |
5 |
12 |
20 |
4.45 |
4.05 |
|
Practical exercises |
0 |
0 |
5 |
3 |
13 |
21 |
4.38 |
4.18 |
|
Lecture style |
1 |
2 |
9 |
3 |
4 |
19 |
3.37 |
2.91 |
|
One-to-one training/coaching |
2 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
6 |
20 |
3.40 |
3.09 |
|
Online (including Webinars) |
3 |
4 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
19 |
3.05 |
2.64 |
|
Self paced digital (could be online or via CD ROM) |
2 |
7 |
5 |
3 |
1 |
18 |
2.67 |
2.18 |
|
Printed Workbook |
3 |
3 |
7 |
3 |
5 |
21 |
3.19 |
3.05 |
|
Audio or video presentations |
2 |
3 |
4 |
7 |
3 |
19 |
3.32 |
2.86 |
The most preferred delivery means was:
Highest ranking – over 4.0 (average raking from those who provided a response)
|
Group |
4.45 |
|
Practical exercises |
4.38 |
Greatest number of “5”’s:
|
Practical exercises |
13 |
|
Group |
12 |
Question 8: Are there anyadditional areas of training you need that have not been listed on this survey?
Research in Foreign Legislation
I suggest in here that the Parliamentary Librarian cannot cope with the service, if theyonly general Librarian qualification. Three major and related development of the Parliamentary Librarians are:
Communication Studies
IT Training
Legal Studies
copyright problems
Web 2.0 - wouldlike to hear of the validity and usefulness of these tools for libraries -studies, experiences and best practices for libraries. Impact of the libraryand information work and survival and future strategies for libraries andinformation services is really an urgent issue.
Marketing of Library Services
Question 9: Othercomments
I have never attended any pre-conference neither Annual Meeting, but I intend to do it in2009.
As a Senior Parliamentary Librarian, this survey will recap my areas of need and all ofthese areas are most needed. This isevident in the case of most third world countries where lacking in advancementof the new technology. The sectionsabove I believe will precious if this survey seriously considering the futureof the Parliamentary libraries, especially in the third world countries inwhich depend very much to western world advancement.
It is difficult to describe but there are relatively few staff working in Information andResearch Service for Althingi therefore the skills developed tend to be moregeneralistic than specialist.
Training through Podcasts or Webcasts could work nicely for people who will not be ableto attend the IFLA conference.
Last update: 3 November 2009