NEED AND PURPOSE OF PERSONNEL PLANNING

A library and/or an information centre is essentially a service institution; it serves information and knowledge to users on the basis of their information needs from its collection of documents that carry information and knowledge,

Naturally persons who are involved in this service should be knowledgeable in terms of both the ramifications of subjects and the sources from which the required information can be furnished. It is not merely these intellectual skills that are sufficient to render library and information service. A spirit of service is essential to deal with different categories of persons with varied temperaments who seek information for diverse purposes. The tools and techniques that would provide the necessary the anchor for providing this type of highly skilled service form part of the infrastructural facilities built up in an institution.

Libraries and information institutions are currently in a state of continuous change. Information technology (IT) appears to be the principal instrument, transforming and restructuring libraries and information institutions. Persons with specialisation in a discipline combined with matching skills of IT, oral and written communication, and management techniques combined with professional education and training are perhaps the right group of talented persons to be assembled in a library or information centre. This mix of talents is not easily available in the current state of the professional market in the country. Therefore the recruitment of personnel requires very special attention in order to pick up right persons and develop them to fit into the challenging demands of modem libraries and information centres.