Communication Skills for Personality Development in Library Profession.
Paramjinang. Moita
Librarian
ICFAI University Nagaland, India
Abstract: Communication skills are extremely important for Librarians and Library Professionals, LIS
Professionals much continually update their knowledge about new communication techniques (ICT)
emerging everyday.LIS professionals communication skills must obtain information relating to the internal
and external environments of Library information science and should acquire the knowledge and skills such
as leadership, team building, management etc.
Keywords: Communication Skill, Personality Development, Library Profession
Introduction
Communication is a process of exchange, i.e give
and take of information by message or otherwise.
It is nothing, but the process of transferring
information from one person to another.
The word Communication begin from Latin word
―commūnicāre,‖ meaning "to share"impart,
participate etc. Communication could be a concept,
fact, idea, principle or theory. It's a purposeful
activity of exchanging information and meaning
across space and time using various technical or
natural means, whichever is available or preferred.
Definition of communication:
Leland Brown states that communication is the
transmission and interchange of
facts,ideas,feelings,or course of action.
Theo Haiemann states that communication is the
process of passing information and understanding
from one person to another. It is the process of
imparting ideas and making oneself understood by
others.
Websters dictionary defines communication as
sending, giving, or exchanging information and
ideas . Communication is a means of persuasion to
influence the other so that the desired effect is
consciously or unconsciously achieved.
Allen Louis states that communication is the sum
of all the things one person does when he wants to
create understanding in mind of another. it involves
a systematic and continuous process of
telling,listening and understanding.
The process of communication.
 Sender or the Encoder
 Message itself
 Receiver or the Decoder
 feedback
(1)The sender can encodes the message in
different way like by words, spoken or written, or
behaviour or body language etc. Which he or she
feels best.
(2)The message is sent via a channel so as to reach
the receiver. It could be through mass-media, print,
or face to face interaction.
(3)The receiver decodes the message by
interpreting the message through contextual and
language skills. He also sends a feedback.
(4)what are the after effects of your message.
Communication skills : Communication is one of
the most important life skills we can learn—yet one
we don't usually put a lot of effort into. Whether
you want to have better conversations in your
social life or get your ideas across better at work,
 Communication skill is the ability an
individual displays in effectively
communicating with clients, colleagues,
subordinates, supervisors in a professional
manner.
 Communication skills are generally
understood to be the art or technique of
using oral or written language.
 Communication skills are also influenced
by culture, experiences, events, actions,
variety of technology etc.
 There are different communication skills
for different events, for e.g-formal
meetings, seminars, workshops,
conferences, gatherings, classrooms,
presentations, etc.
 Communication skill is effected by radio,
T.V, newspapers etc. To support this
various technologies have emerged like
mobile phones, ipods, pagers, cameras,
multi medias, etc.
Communication Skills for Personality Development in Library Profession.
Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 3(6) June, 2015 65
 To use them various professionals have
emerged, now a days library professionals
are trained towards these new user
friendly technologies.
Communication in library profession:
For today‘s librarians having professional degrees
in library and information science is not sufficient
unlike in the past. There is demand for librarians
having multidimensional aptitude in the areas of
technical work, administrative work and also in
providing user oriented services along with soft
skills. Like any other profession, the soft skills are
required in day-to-day working for carrying out
routine jobs more effectively. The librarians
working in large organizations like corporate
offices are already practicing these skills through
by experience or training. One may learn these soft
skills easily provided they are aware what these
are!!
Following are soft skills required to become a
successful library professional:
Listening skills: The library professionals must
have good listening skills as he/she has to interact
with different types of users all the time. By
carefully listening to users‘ he/she can identify the
exact requirement and then provide the service
accordingly.
Communications skills: Command on language
especially English and also regional one will
improve the communication. Good communication
skills also require understanding people, selfconfidence.
With this one can achieve lot and solve
problems too.
Interpersonal skills: Librarians have to deal with
all levels of people like Management, users,
colleagues in library, vendors etc. To deal with
each one on them in rightful manner requires
interpersonal skills. When you work in large
organization, it is most important to build rapport
with all departments, which helps in managing the
library and providing better services to every one.
Public relations: One needs to use PR very
effectively to attract users in libraries through
various ways. It also helps to bond with users and
vendors too. Also gives ability to work with other
professionals.
Customer service: Customer is library user and to
satisfy his information needs is customer service.
The librarians are always giving attention to their
users and providing services through CAS, SDI or
other specialized services. The customer service
emphasizes the customer satisfaction, which
guarantees that user will always come back to
library.
Leadership skills & Teamwork: Library
management especially the big library is team
exercise. Hence it is required to have leadership
skills to manage and guiding the team time to time,
as every subordinate is important for carrying out
their work efficiently for smooth running of library.
Negotiating skills: These skills are required on
special occasions such as handling bulk purchases,
specialized databases subscription with vendors
etc. Also some times in delicate situations like
library committee meetings or avoiding undue
requirements from arrogant users etc.
Writing skills: The librarians are sometimes asked
to submit/help in writing research proposal/
business proposal/project report, which requires
good writing skills. Today there are many library
professionals who are contributing to various
publications even in-house or even by blogging for
sharing their experiences and helping users.
Project management skills: In corporate sector
many times, librarians are part of some project
team and assigned specialized jobs such as
knowledge management or digital institutional
repository. These require dedication, understanding
of the project, time management for completion of
work, teamwork and reporting back the results etc.
Presentation skills: The presentation skills are
required in report writing, library committee
meetings and even in daily work which represents
the library management overall for users. It not
only emphasizes the individual skills but also from
library presentation by means of its decoration,
users guides, and library ambience.
Teaching skills: This is essential for new user
orientations or in case new service is introduced
such as online database searching. It also includes
motivating reading habits in users.
Communication Skills:
In this knowledge environment, Librarian is the
facilitator of access between knowledge and the
user. No matter how much professional
competence a librarian has, he will fail to deliver
and satisfy users if he lacks communication and
presentation skills. The information professional
will command respect and acceptance among users
only through the strength of his communication
skills. It is directly proportional factor. Librarians
needs to be as emphatic listener to user demands
and needs. He needs to communicate the
importance and usefulness of information services
to the users. Librarian also needs to have a trusted
communication with team members to achieve
organizational goods.
Communication has a great importance in
providing better services to users. He
communicates the value of library service to
decision makers, staff and users. When he provides
information to the user he must communicate
clearly and respectfully with customers and
colleagues. Always Demonstrates active listening
skills with customers and colleagues in his
workplace. Communication is not only must be
effective with users only but must have ability to
Communication Skills for Personality Development in Library Profession.
Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 3(6) June, 2015 66
negotiate effectively with publishers, customers,
management & vendors, Communication skill
includes lip reading, finger spelling, sign language.
It is also the ability to receive and express
information. In library profession, certain
communication skills provide the base, where one
needs to utilize and understand. Here,
communication is best achieved through proper
presentation skills.
Personality Development
Personality development is generally defined as
deeply ingrained patterns of thoughts, feelings and
behaviour. When one refers to personality, it
implies to all what is unique about an individual
and a typical characteristics that makes one stand
out in the crowd. The word personality is derived
from the latin word ‗persona‘ which means mask.
The way a person behaves, thinks, feels, the
manner in which he conducts himself in a given
situation is largely determined by conditioning his
mind through his personal life experiences.
Definition of personality development: Allport,
(1980) defines personality as the dynamic
organization within the individual of those psychophysical
systems that determine his or her unique
adjustment to the environment.
Personality development is directly affected by
certain excellent behavioural traits like -soft skills,
verbal skills and to some extent non-verbal
communications.
Information science in library profession:
Information Communication Technology skills ICT
has revolutionized the information handling
activities in library & information centre. It
involves entire gamut of technology involved in
information processing, consolidation, repacking,
communication and retrieval. It is necessary that
LIS professionals have a comprehensive
understanding of Library automation, Networking,
hardware and software involved. Though
knowledge about Internet and its usefulness is a
must, Knowledge about online databases, digital
library softwares, search engines, portals, content
management is very much essential. In a nutshell,
LIS professionals will have to keep themselves up
to date with any developments in ICT that has any
implication for knowledge management process.
There are various tools available for Knowledge
management process. Some of the tools for
knowledge Capture are PC Pack, Clementine Data
mining, and Intelligent Miner. Similarly some of
the tools used for knowledge sharing process are
ART Enterprise, GrapeVINE, PKM (Personal
Knowledge Manager), Knowledge Exchange,
etc.(Bansal, A. 2000). It is essential to get adequate
training and mastery over such tools for effectively
handling knowledge management activities.
 Due to advancements of science and
technology, profound changes are taking
place in all fields and most important
among them is the Educational field,
Research and Development.
 Library and information science generates
required input on all fields in the form of
knowledgeable manpower to utilize these
resources.
 It is expected that the students,
researchers, teachers adopt the new
technologies and apply their skill and
knowledge in library profession.
 Information science for library deals with
selection, acquisition, processing, storage,
organization, retrieval and dissemination
of the information to the people, students,
researchers and teachers.
 Information and communication
technology has brought revolutions in the
field of library science.
 Information science is broader than
documentation because it is concerned
with the entire information and transfer
process.
 Librarians are regarded as information
specialists and UNESCO identifies these
professionals as information scientists.
 The new paradigm of librarians is to assist
others in acquiring skills in locating,
evaluating and variety of methods of
information, presentation such as inter
active networks, multimedia, instruction
technology is also linked with web –
based technology.
 Web-tracking is another very important
component used by Library professionals
for collection of large amount of data and
can generate a variety of statistics, without
the researches presence and without
interrupting the information seekers.
 The library information service is now
fully automated, various kinds of
education and training programmes,
functions, services, activities, mission,
goals etc.
 The various technologies and its
application, communication skills has
enhanced the activities and functions for a
true, modern librarianship.
 A library professional should see to it that
the programmes are arranged in such a
way, so that the thought processes are in
accordance with the personal needs.
Communication Skills for Personality Development in Library Profession.
Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 3(6) June, 2015 67
 Therefore, verbal communication
skill(face to face) is essential for
enhancing personality development.
 Communication skills in library
information sciences can make flexible
learning arrangements where the users
make best use of new technologies, its
practical application and e-learning
process so that they have a knowledge
based personality.
 The increasing use of information
technology is changing the personality
levels of professional so as to rethink and
re-adjust in library profession.
 It is associated with certain personality
problems-i.e. lack of connectivity between
teacher and learner, content and
community.
 Personality is affected because verbal
communication skills are totally missing.
 Too much dependence on technology is
associated with serious personality
problems.
 A person is totally devoid of natural and
social connections of which an individual
is a participating member.
E-learning:- The term e-learning is used in a
variety of ways such as online learning, Computer
Based Learning (CBL) Web Based Training
(WBT), Online Resource-Based Learning (ORBL)
Networked Collaborative Learning (NCL),
Computer Supported Collaborative Learning
(CSCL).
E-learning is the extension of classroom learning,
here the emphasis is on making available the study
material at the convenience of the user.
In today‘s world of information technology,
emergence of computers, access to electronic
media, advanced telecommunication systems, multi
media, audio-visuals has created new possibilities
of digital information.
Information today has increased enormously, so
that no library can meet their needs alone.
Now, libraries and information science are
effectively linked through net-work services, email,
online access, soft ware and hard ware
systems etc.
 Computers and communication
technology now a days increasingly rely
on resource sharing through electronic
media for achieving high speed access,
reducing time to search information,
shorter storage space, finding simple
means for selecting materials and time
reduction.
 E-learning is thus the high-tech, netenabled
subset of the larger universe of
distance education of distributed learning.
e-journals
 Transformation from print to digital
environment. This has provided greater
speed and economy.
 Online data bases stand to benefit from
this technology.
 One can access it round the clock across
geographical barriers, it reaches all the
subscribers simultaneously.
 Is a boon for huge campuses where there
are large numbers of readers.
 Co-operation among libraries which
comes together to share journals
electronically.
 They counter the escalating cost and
library budget in availing print journals.
 The U.G.C Infonet e-journal consortium is
the largest in the world. It uses education
and research network(ERNET) and plays
a vital role in providing better and free
access to scholarly information.
Effects on personality development
 Too much indulgence into e-learning
again deviates a persons personality
pattern.
 Knowledge skills are affected as there is
no direct relationship with the printed
world.
 The touch and feel sense is missing.
 It is important to develop a relationship
with the natural environment and effective
communication skills can be implemented.
Management of libraries
 Management has come to occupy a
prominent place for a library professional.
This is due to the fact that libraries have
become bigger and more complex.
 A library professional needs to develop
good communication skills and
personality to be an effective manager.
Library managers
 The manager is the key communicator of
library policies.
 Responsibilities for their correct
interpretation rests with management.
 They constantly demonstrate through
various communication channels so that
their resources are being effectively and
efficiently utilized.
Communication Skills for Personality Development in Library Profession.
Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 3(6) June, 2015 68
 An effective manager will clearly
communicate to the subordinates, what is
expected of them and what they are
responsible, for feedback must play an
important role.
 A library manager transmits information
through decision making role,
entrepreneurship, resource allocation
through effective inter-personal
communication skill so as to obtain and
impart information.
Conclusion
Library is the pivot of the educational system.
Communication skills are extremely important for
librarians and information professionals. The very
nature of the Library and Information Science
Professionals job requires them to assess select,
process and disseminate the information through
verbal and non-verbal ways. it must be able to
communicate to a large number of people, whose
communication skills both as senders and receivers
differ widely. LIS Professionals must continually
update their knowledge about the new
communication techniques emerging every day
(IT). The LIS Professionals communication skills
must obtain information relating to the internal and
external environments of library information
science.
Thus, the LIS Professionals of the 21st century have
to prepare themselves for working in digitized
network environment and should acquire
knowledge and skills such as communication,
leadership, team building, decision making,
management etc. and they should keep themselves
abreast with the information world and be
competent enough to serve the digital culture. A
library professional must maintain good and a
strong collaborative relationship with the users.
Librarians are the ultimate search engines. Thus,
They are the glue that binds successful, efficient
and excellent library services to the user.
Therefore, communication skills and information
are directly linked with personality development in
library profession.
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