Essential competencies of Indian school librarians in the digital age: A study

The technology integration has made a swift take over among the children and youth alike. It’s a proven fact that technology has brought in many opportunities to developing countries like India. Librarians have enthusiastically adopted technology for providing user oriented services. The challenge is whether the school librarians possess the competencies to adopt technology. With proper training, the school librarians can become the main link between digital resources and users. National agencies in India have proposed training programmes for librarians. An attempt is made to understand the approaches made by Indian Library Association, National Knowledge Commission, NCERT, etc in imparting digital competencies. This study lists the essential digital competencies needed by school librarians in the Indian context. Shortcomings in imparting digital competencies to the librarians are compiled through a structured questionnaire sent to a select sample of school librarians. A summary of the success of such efforts is presented with a proposed independent training module of imparting digital competencies for Indian schools.