Demand for librarians is on the rise

Even as books go digital there is a growing need for school librarians and archivists to manage the online data, academics say.

Michelle Deegan, librarian at Latifa School for Girls, says her job is to help children deal with information. Reem Mohammed / The National

DUBAI // More Emiratis are required to fill a growing demand for librarians, according to academics.

Emerging technologies and the surge of online information has only increased the need for school librarians and public archivists to help manage the high volume of data and sift out poor-quality material, said Dr Jassim Jirjees, director of the country’s only master’s in library and information science programme, at the American University in the Emirates.

“They are needed,” Dr Jirjees said. “We also need locals to do the job, and sometimes you cannot find any. My colleagues in other universities call me to have librarians working in the libraries. Sometimes we have difficulties finding one with good qualifications.”

A joint study published last year by researchers at AUE, Zayed University and the University College London, Doha, found that “there is still need for more library and information science training and education at various levels to meet the demands of the market”.

School librarian Margaret Smallpeice agreed.

“We do need more Emirati librarians in schools,” said Mrs Smallpeice.

“One of our big problems here is cataloguing Arabic books. I -always have to go and ask one of the Arabic teachers for help. International schools too could do with Emirati librarians because it is finally starting to dawn on the powers that be that being able to read in Arabic would help children of all nationalities when learning the language.”

The researchers said there had been a number of attempts to develop education programmes in the UAE “to provide the required number of librarians”, but most had failed because of low enrolment, forcing the UAE to rely heavily on expatriates. Dr Jirjees said about 90 per cent of the people working in libraries across the country were foreigners. He said a public misconception about the nature of library work might be forcing students to pursue other professions they perceive as being more attractive and lucrative.

“People think that being a librarian means only putting books on the shelves, but that’s not true any more. It hasn’t been true for the last quarter of a century,” Dr Jirjees said.

In fact, the profession had become so fast-paced, it was sometimes a challenge keeping up with its ever-evolving nature, said Mrs Smallpeice, who is a librarian at Applied Technology High School in Dubai.

“It feels as though you’re on a treadmill all the time just trying to catch up with the latest thing,” said Mrs Smallpeice, who has been a school librarian in the UAE for nearly 20 years.

The job not only requires a combination of customer service, management and retail marketing skills to run the physical library, but librarians must also know how to navigate niche online information databases, be digitally savvy and, of course, be connected with the latest literary and pop culture trends to keep their student clientele engaged.

“You kind of have to know a bit about everything, and now you kind of have to factor that knowledge of how technology works as well,” said Michelle Deegan, -librarian at Latifa School for Girls. “There’s a certain element of integrating the different technologies out there. Some of the other librarians use social media a lot, they integrate it whenever they can into what they do, whether to promote the library or just reading.”

Mrs Smallpeice and Ms Deegan are members of the UAE School Librarians Network, an informal group of about 120 librarians across the country who meet once a term to exchange ideas and talk about new trends on how to get children reading.

“As a school librarian, your job is to get them engaged and the other job is to try to help them deal with information,” said Ms Deegan. “One of the jobs is to try to put the right book in the right kid’s hands. It is gratifying to actually have kids who aren’t particularly great readers of traditional print and you give them something that engages them and they’re desperate to read it.”