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Unit 14: Library Profession

A Commitment to Public Service: A professional needs to work with the prime purpose of Notes
rendering a public service rather than for monetary gain. It has also been suggested that
some professionals feel an obligation to society, beyond their client relationship. Doctors
may not merely sell their service if a procedure is medically inappropriate, however
much the client may want it undertaken; architects may refuse to work on a project that
would be detrimental to its surroundings, and lawyers may refuse to take cases which are
merely exploitative. The obligation to educate the client is often seen as a key part of the
definition. Librarianship is a service oriented job and the user of a library is regarded a
king.
Guarantees of the Service Rendered: The concepts of professionalism may be inferred
from guarantees. But these are inferences only. The idea behind a guarantee is that the
person offering the guarantee is accountable to the extent of damages that will be
compensated. One thing these sources hold in common, implicit or explicit, is the idea of
accountability. Those who are members of these organizations or professions are held
accountable for what they do.

Formal Organization: An organization generally binds all the members of a group, calling
or vocation together for concerted opinion, to achieve high standard in performance, and
to act as a force to achieve common goal. The formal organization of librarianship started
with the establishment of the American Library Association in 1876. At modern times,
library association are there at different levels i.e. international, regional, national, state
and local. Many associations covering specialized interest have also come into being.

Example: Indian Association of Special Library and Information Centre (IASLIC), Medical
Library Association of India (MLI), Indian Association of Teachers of Library and Information
Science (IATLIS), etc.
Licensing of Practitioners: Membership in the profession is usually restricted and regulated
by a professional association.

Example: Lawyers regulate themselves through a bar association and restrict membership
through licensing and accreditation of law schools.
Hence, professions also typically have a great deal of autonomy, setting rules and enforcing
discipline themselves. Professions are also generally exclusive, which means that laymen are
legally prohibited from practising the profession.

Example: People are generally prohibited by law from practising medicine without a
license and would be likely be to practice well without acquiring the skills of a physician.
Generally, professional library jobs require an academic LIS degree as certification. In the United
States, the certification usually comes from a Master’s degree granted by an ALA-accredited
institution. In the United Kingdom, however, there have been moves to broaden the entry
requirements to professional library posts, so that qualifications in, or experience of, a number
of other disciplines have become more acceptable.
Library Association (LA), UK maintain the professional register of chartered librarians
(professionally qualified members are known as chartered librarians and are of two categories
Associates who are fully trained and professionally educated librarians; and
Fellow (FLA) who have successfully completed additional work at an advanced level to
prove their ability in special areas of librarians.

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