Practices in library staff development: A case study of Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (PARD) library

This study has been conducted to judge and document the initiatives taken for staff development at the library of Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (PARD) to enhance the performance of its employees for effective service delivery. This study also documents the visible change in professional improvement of library staff before and after such initiatives. The paper describes each initiative with explanation and practically applied examples showing its output and results. This is an observational study where the data was collected through personal interviews, tabletalks with employees, and annual Performance Evaluation Reports (PERs)of the subjects. Current and retrospective staff of PARD library have participated in this study and provided their candid feedback. The library job, unlike other jobs, is isolated and is limited to perform one-type of job description. Therefore, the library staff are not openly exposed to avail staff development opportunities. The study concludes that techniques (discussed in this paper and practically executed) are useful to develop competencies of library staff in order to be more fruitful. Annual Performance Evaluation Reports, individual interview results, and users' feedback on overall library performance is evident to shows that staffs, have benefited both personally and professionally from such activities. Staff development activities taken at PARD library has not only developed the skills at individual level but also contributed to achieve the organizational goals. This paper presents original viewpoint by the authors based on the observation, interviews and examining the performance evaluation report of the subject population. A kind of first ever study conducted on development of library staff in Pakistan.