Soft Skill Performance of Librarians’ Working in Institutions of Higher Education in Western Vidarbha of Maharashtra State in India

Abstract

Library is a service oriented institution. Therefore, as a head of library, beside hard skill, Librarian must have a soft skill to provide quality services to its stakeholders and through it to give better performance. This article is a result of study conducted in the institutions of higher education in Western Vidarbha of Maharashtra state in India to determine attributes of soft skills required by the Librarians to manage Libraries effectively and smoothly and also to examine the attributes of the soft skills in Librarians. The soft skill performance was studied in view of stakeholders such as Principal, Teachers and Students. Questionnaires were distributed in the institutions located in five districts which come under Western Vidarbha and affiliated to Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University. From each institute 5 teachers and 10 students were identified for the study and were asked to rate soft skill performance of Librarian of their respective institute. The results showed that there is no significant difference in soft skill performance of Librarians working in Rural and Urban area in Western Vidarbha region. Also the study concluded with a say that there is positive correlation between the soft skill performance of Librarians according to stakeholders and soft skills expectation of all the stakeholders from librarian are same. On the basis of the result come out from this study, at the end, the authors have given some suggestions to improve the soft skill performance of Librarians working in higher education.