A comparison between needed competencies of academic librarians and LIS curricula in Pakistan

Rapidly growing academic libraries are the major consumers of the product of seven LIS schools in Pakistan. The changing environment of academic life demands new competencies in academic librarians. This paper reviews the literature on the competencies needed for academic librarians in the Asia/Pacific region and discusses the changing environment of academic librarianship in Pakistan. It provides a list of competencies needed for entry‐level academic librarians, first prepared on the basis of a literature review and, then, validated by 70 chief librarians of universities and postgraduate level colleges from the public and private sector. The validated list of competencies is compared with the curricula of LIS programs. The paper highlights the deficiencies in the curricula and their implementation and recommendations are given to improve the situation.