The State library consultant at work

In this study, state library consultants are described in terms of personal characteristics, educational preparation, and career attitudes. Specific objectives of this exploratory survey were (1) to provide information for guidelines on recruiting and training future consultants, (2) to refine techniques for studying the area, and (3) to discover areas for further research. Data was collected by questionnaires sent to individual consultants and state librarians. Major findings were--uniformly late decisions to come to consulting work, lack of special educational preparation, and performance of more administrative than consultative work with public libraries. This points to need for greater professional awareness of the importance of consulting generally. Suggestions to state agencies for meeting their recruiting and training problems involve higher salaries, definition of job responsibilities, improved specialized training, and professional publicity about these changes. The major implication for library schools is to develop post-master's programs that include the student's specialty, consulting techniques, and administrative and personnel theory. Further studies should examine consulting in other library fields, reasons for leaving consulting work, and consultant's performances and activities. Appendixes include the questionnaires, job satisfactions and dissatisfactions, helpful courses of study, and a bibliography of 41 items. (Jb).