Contrary to popular belief, everyone who works in a library is not a librarian! Yes, there are many other job positions and designations in a library apart from the position of a librarian and each of it has its own importance to the library. Paying bills, answering phone calls, arranging shelves are the other tasks which too have to be looked after and thus, a Library employs a number of workers to take care of its operations and functioning.
To keep a library running, there is a full hierarchical structure present in a library, which is more or less the same, irrespective of the size of the library. Let’s look at it in detail:
Library Director
The position of a library director is the topmost position in a library and this official has the main leadership role. Apart from recruiting staff and devising strategies for the running of the institution, a library director also takes care of maintain public relations and following government policies. The following given positions fall under the supervision of a library director:
1. Library Manager
Depending upon the size of the library, there may be multiple managers for each of the branches or segments or in the case of a small library, only one manager may also suffice. These individuals are responsible for day to day operations and administrative tasks.
2. Librarians
Librarians are those library workers whose task is to maintain the library book and journal collection and designs and implements training and education programs run by the library. These employees work with computer systems and update library records too.
3. Library Assistants
Library assistants or technicians fall a little below in the hierarchy pyramid and perform mostly clerical duties. These are the individuals which help you in the check out and check in process and answer phones, take late fee and issue library cards etc.
4. Pages
Pages are those library workers who are responsible for arranging books in the library in the proper form and according to alphabetical order. They put back the returned books in their place and handle visitor request about retrieving books.
The following are some of the other departments of a library and have their set of employees, depending upon the size of the institution.
- Human Resource department-handle recruiting and employer-employee relations
- Accounting department-handles the accounting and finance
- Public relations department-take care of marketing and advertising
- Facilities library management-manages in-library equipments and work place management.
- Transportation services-handle transportation related services for the library like transportation of books.
- Security services-take care of the security of the library.