Page 84 - DLIS003_LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

Unit 4: Job Analysis and Evaluation

Notes
of a synthesis of the preceding phases and a list of library tasks arranged by eight major
subsystems and three performance levels - professional, technical, and clerical.
Most recently, the consultants for Project Progress used as a starting point the Illinois tasks
and functional groupings to find out who does what in a selection of public libraries. The
task list they developed contained 787 tasks. An analysis of the task survey shows
considerable overlap in performance of tasks by various categories of library workers.
The researchers state that “We can identify no norms or patterns by which libraries could
assess their own task/personnel assignments. Only 9.5 per cent of the tasks listed were
carried out exclusively by librarians.” The consultants conclude that task analysis is not a
tool that can enable libraries to rationalize and account for their effectiveness in personnel
administration. In addition they conclude that “extrapolating ‘who should do what’ in
libraries from ‘who is doing what’ is neither feasible nor desirable.” Rather, they
recommend that model job descriptions should be developed to provide guidelines for
appropriate task assignment within public libraries.
Questions

1. Describe the Function Job Analysis.
2. Explain the job description model and advantages of Job description.
Source: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/ramp/html/r8722e/r8722e0t.htm

4.7 Summary

Job analysis is the process of investigating and analysing the functions in a work assignment
or group of assignment.
Job description is an organized factual statement of job contents in the form of duties and
responsibilities of a specific job.

Job specification translates the job description into human qualifications so that a job can
be performed in a better manner.

Job specification helps in hiring an appropriate person for an appropriate position.
Job evaluation as evident from the word itself aims at evaluating the job and not the
person. It is a process of evaluating and determining the value of the job for a library.

The factor comparison method is a combination of the ranking and point system.
There are various qualitative methods of job evaluation such as: Job Ranking Method, Job
Classification or Grading Method.

Job evaluation requires commitment in time and effort. The length of time from
introduction to operation will vary depending on the complexity of the scheme and the
size of the job population.
4.8 Keywords

Complexity: Complexity refers to the variety and relative difficulty of the material or information
upon which decisions are based.

Initiative: Initiative refers to the degree of independent action required.
Job: Job is piece of work or may be pieces of work to be done by an individual which lead to a
result and becomes part of an activity.

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