An investigation into the professional status of public librarians in Cape Town

Abstract

The assumption in the international literature of librarianship is that public librarianship is a "profession" with a social mission to serve the cultural, informational and educational needs of the general public. However, in recent years there has been questioning among South African public librarians over their "profession". The South African journal and conference literature has recorded deterioration in public libraries as a result of shrinking budgets (for example Leach 1998). Scores of traditionally "professional" posts were frozen and clerical staff was seconded from municipal offices to run libraries (Hart 2006). Kagan (2002) warns that lack of professional identity among librarians might hinder the social role of public libraries in South Africa. This project investigated the professional status of public librarians in Cape Town in terms of accepted characteristics or traits of a profession. And it examined public librarians' own understandings of the meaning of the concept "profession" and their perceptions of the work in terms of these understandings.