1997 Volume 43 Issue 4 Pages 145-160
The Committee for the Promotion of Decentralization currently recommends the reevaluation and abolishment of the regulations stating that public local bodies must have a certain number of specialists, from the viewpoint of decentralization and deregulation. It is mandatory that a library director should possess the certification of librarian and that the fixed number of librarians should be secured at the public libary that receives subsidy from the State. The abolishment of these two regulations is also recommended by the Committee. The definition and evaluation of these regulations have been elucidated in this paper. The conditions in which these regulations could be effective are also discussed. Analysis is made to find out whether the certifications of librarian should satisfy these conditions. As a result, the following four points have been clarified. (1) The opportunities for training librarians and giving them the certifications of librarians are not enough in the provincial areas. (2) The standards of academic education required for the certifications of librarians and the methods to acquire the certifications of librarians lack in flexibility. (3) It is compulsory for even small munidipalities to secure certificated librarians to receive subsidies from the State. (4) Objective evaluation of the librarians' competency is not performed, and the contents of education for librarianship remain unclear. Based upon these four points, methods of aquiring the certifications of librarian, evaluation of librarians' competency, training of librarians, and personnel management of librarians have been discussed.
