An Appraisal of Career Structures of Library Professionals of Central Libraries of Leading Universities in Pakistan.

This study has been conducted to find out the nature of career structure of university library professionals adopted by different universities during the formation of organizational structure of libraries. The study investigates the nature of designation, scales, and education and experience requirements of librarians at different levels of hierarchy in the central libraries of leading universities in Pakistan. A quantitative research design and document analysis was used to explore the nature of career structure of library professionals. Organizational documents such as duty roasters, organizational charts and service structures were collected during the data collection for this study. The data was extracted through perusal of organizational charts and documents collected and entered in Microsoft Excel sheet for arranging it in different categories. Assort option was used for analyzing these data sets for this study. The study brings up both different nomenclatures used for library professionals and the tiers of career structures of professionals. Career structure of library professionals working in libraries is not uniform. Designation and scale of library professionals are of various kinds and also require diverse education and experience requirements. Therefore, there is a need to rationally redesign the career structure of library professionals for making them sensitive and responsive to the needs of the users of information age. This study is pilot study in Pakistan that identifies the nature of career structure of library professionals in university libraries of Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]