Professionalism among library professionals in University Libraries in Kerala.

Abstract

In general, professionalism refers to the skill of becoming an expert in one's industry and making an effort to uphold the standards set by the profession. In the discipline of library and information science (LIS), professionalism encompasses the entire range of activities that take place within a library workforce. In essence, this includes the librarians' interactions with library management, their clients, colleagues, team spirit, staff development, the function of library associations, and more. It is important to know that library professionals are true professionals and to find out the factors that lead to their claim to the professional status of librarians in society. For that, it is important to check whether the library professionals follow the code of ethics, how competent they are, and their continuing professional development opportunities. This study also assesses the professional identity of library professionals. The study helps to know how much professionalism is exhibited by library professionals, to identify different challenges faced by them, and to make them aware of opportunities to serve the users better. It also helps the authority to plan the training programs for library professionals and to solve the problems of library professionals, making them equipped to meet the challenges, which in turn helps to provide better library services to users. The population of the study comprises library professionals working at the University of Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kannur University, the University of Calicut, Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, and Cochin University of Science and Technology. A sample of 265 library professionals was selected. The primary data for the present study was collected using a structured questionnaire. Data consolidation of the data collected through the questionnaire was done using 'MS Excel, and further statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS.