Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the role orientation that librarians are expected to carry during their career-life. More specifically, this study examined the pattern of librarians' subjectivism related to attitude, belief, and confidence. Q questions were made of 36 items, including personal value system and role attitude. P sample included 23 librarians. Data were collected for 8 days(from April 15, 2005 to April 22, 2005). Analyses showed the following results. First, librarians' role orientations were classified into 3 types: user-centered orientation, organization-centered orientation, and expertise-centered orientation.(1)The first type librarians were interested in having good relationships with users, while emphasizing the importance of providing good services to the users.(2)The second type of librarians were concerned with social function of the library, while placing highlight on their roles as organizational members. Among them, achievement evaluation was regarded as an important indicator of personal success. They were interested in having stable organizational culture, as well as economic growth of libraries. This orientation was dominant among married members.(3)The third type of librarians focused on librarians' role implementation and professional achievement. They showed interest not only in the improvement of librarians' creativity and the growth of expertises, but also the expansion of retraining opportunities. This orientation was conspicuous among female librarians. Second, several commonalities and differences were consistently found among librarians. The first type was interested in user-centered orientation(user contact, need satisfaction, self dignity, etc.). The second type was interested in organization-centered orientation(economic stability and library growth, ordinance, evaluation, etc.). The third type was interested in expertise-centered orientation(creativity, expertise growth, retraining opportunity, professional achievement. self-respect, etc.).