Human Resource Management

5.2.3.1 Staffing Levels.

People are an organisation’s most valuable resource and if managed appropriately, provide livelihood to the organisation.²²⁵ If managed inappropriately, the workforce becomes an expensive commitment that leads to few rewards and many problems.

Therefore successful planning and management of human resources through appropriate staffing levels, staff training and motivation are critical for overall effectiveness.

While the library system in the public universities in Kenya had for a long time experienced low staffing levels, the continuing restructuring of civil service which started in 1999 has aggravated the problem through retrenchment of paraprofessional and support staff. This programme, while having noble goals has not been carried out appropriately and has created more problems for university libraries than it was able to solve. Due to shortage of support staff professionals have to perform a lot of routine work such as shelving, filing of catalogue cards to the extent of being left without time to perform their professional duties such as planning and reference services. University libraries have also experienced high staff turn over due to their inability to pay as well as private organisations. There is therefore need to establish standards for staffing provision that will guide universities to ensure that appropriate staffing levels take place.

5.2.3.2 Staff Training

In all universities examined there is severe shortage of qualified staff both at the management and operation levels. Information technology illiteracy also remains high among library staff in Kenya and the profession has significantly failed to progress with improvements in information technology applications for library housekeeping and

225 People are the key to effective functioning of any library or information agency. This is especially true because libraries are labour intensive organisations and therefore the quality of service will depend a lot on how well the management of human resources is done.

information retrieval activities, multimedia technology such as CD-ROM technology and Internet based resources.²²⁶

Therefore librarians need basic and advanced training to facilitate the use of IT for both administrative and service provision purposes. With the increasing adoption of PC based information techniques, there is need for technical expertise if the library service workers are to provide user assistance. As electronic information becomes prevalent, all staff needs a level of understanding of its management and use and professionally qualified members of staff need an even greater understanding, as they are involved in the assessment and selection of electronic material for the library as well as the dissemination of knowledge about use. As libraries turn to the use of IT to enable them provide service, the usefulness of the traditional syllabi found in many of the library schools in Kenya is in doubt. If library schools in Kenya are to produce the appropriate manpower there is need to focus on the changing job requirements which rapidly becoming electronic based.

In order to be effective in the management of library services there is also need for programmes of continuing education for all categories of library staff to ensure that they remain up-to-date in their skills. The success of such staff training programmes will depend on factors such as: the existence of a staff development and training policy in the parent institution, understanding of employee training needs and appraisal of the programmes to gauge their effectiveness.

5.2.3.3 Staff Motivation

In the institutions examined, only in public universities are professional librarians regarded as academic. In the two private universities, CUEA and USIU librarians are grouped together with administrative staff. Even in public universities, although librarians have similar salaries with academic staff, they have no access to benefits such as duty free car importation facility. Efforts are at present being made in public

226 Were, Jacinta: Computerization of Library Services: Development in Kenya. In: Wise, Michael. - Information and Libraries in Developing World. Vol.1 Sub-Saharan Africa. – London: Library Association, 1990, p. 45

universities to remove the academic status of librarians. In some cases librarians are not included in the senior institutional management and decision making structures which means that they are not involved in decisions relating to the library which ironically they have direct knowledge of its problems and needs. Librarians are not consulted on policy issues by academics or university authorities although they eventually have to participate in their implantation. For example it was reported that in many cases librarians are not involved in decisions to introduce new courses expansion of admission but are on last-minute basis expected to provide the necessary literature support.

What needs to be noted is that improving the status of librarians in universities is pertinent if the library and information services are to realise their full potential. Also, to effectively discharge their duties, library managers have to be part of the top management team and must fully participate in the decision making process. At the same time little will be achieved without measures that improve the service conditions and career prospects, which are important in recruiting and retaining, qualified staff.

5.2.4 Marketing of Library Services

University libraries in Kenya will need to justify their support by parent organisations by demonstrating that they are relevant to the core business of the university and that they contribute to meeting the institutional goals by developing and providing services that meet the needs of the different segments of the university. If they fail to do this they risk being perceived as irrelevant and become more and more marginalized in the university educational process. If they are to develop information services that adequately respond to user need, it is clear that university libraries in Kenya will need to be more aggressive in collecting relevant data from patrons about their needs and expectations. Therefore university libraries need to adopt strategic marketing approach to their services.

As already observed, university libraries in Kenya have tended to concentrate more on public relations, and promotion thus defining marketing in terms informing users about the services already available instead of finding out the user expectations. This is not to down play the role of these activities in the whole marketing strategy. Indeed there is need for university libraries Kenya to make their services more visible to customers by

creating better awareness for these services and policies. However to be useful, promotion activities need to be done within the broader perspective of marketing approaches such as Image analysis, customer satisfaction studies SWOT analysis, portfolio analysis, market segmentation which underpin all areas of service management.

These methods can help measure the perception of people about the information service and identify the needs of the customers as opposed to what the service is providing. They are also useful in providing an indication as to whether existing information service is satisfying to the customers. From the information collected and as part of its marketing activity, libraries will be able to draw measures to provide adequate service and come up with market strategic plans that would spell out how these would be effected. Thus they will be able to create services that are based on firm knowledge of user needs.

There is need for marketing courses be taught in library and information education in Kenyan library schools. This is in line with worldwide developments in the library and information service field such as use of strategic planning, and increase in the use marketing strategy in library management. Possession of marketing skills will contribute to a better performance, more aggressive marketing and professional library and information service. Key areas that need to be covered include understanding and applying the theoretical and practical concepts of non profit marketing, how to carry out analysis of library and information organisations, effective measurement approaches to market survey, design and public relations activities that reflect marketing research.

In conclusion therefore it is clear that marketing approaches can provide university libraries in Kenya tools that can assist them in the task of designing, developing and delivering appropriate services. It can enable them to start with customers rather than seeing them as the finishing point in the supply chain and shift from product and service orientation to customer and need orientation. Therefore irrespective of methods used, Kenyan university libraries need to obtain information from as wide a customer base as possible about their information requirements and assessment of existing library services.

Inexpensive methods that can be used include customer questionnaires, interviewing of new staff and postgraduate students, suggestion boxes, analysis of usage statistics and formal and informal discussion with users and non-users.

5.3 COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES