The Ohio Public Library Core Competencies were developed in response to a direct recommendation from the Ohio Library Council's Futures Initiative. Research and compilation was completed by members of OLC's Library Education Committee (LEC). The competencies are endorsed by the Council as well as OPLIN, State Library of Ohio and OHIONET.
The LEC believes the competencies will be useful in creating job descriptions, in hiring and evaluating staff, and in selecting training opportunities that help staff develop or enhance specific skills and behaviors. The LEC will work with OLC's Divisions and Committees to encourage the development of training to these competencies that will include, but not be limited to, methods to implement and adapt them in the library.
The LEC recommends that public libraries review these competencies carefully and adapt them to their individual needs and staff complement. The competencies are provided below in two formats -- a complete set as a PDF file that can be copied and individual competency sets as Word documents that can be downloaded and customized for your unique library situation.
Complete Core Competencies (53 pages)*
Competencies by category
*Revised 7/2008
Find out more by reading the "Spotlight on Competencies" articles from the OLC's monthly newsletter, Access.
