Knowledge Transfer in Constructing a Teaching Librarian’s Competence Index: Modified Delphi Study

Abstract

This study aims to develop a competence index for teaching librarians in Malaysian higher education academic libraries. Teaching librarians continue to face structural, professional, and pedagogical challenges in delivering effective instructional information literacy, particularly within evolving digital and institutional contexts. Addressing these challenges requires not only identifying relevant competencies but also understanding how professional knowledge is generated, shared, and validated within the librarian community. This qualitative study employed a modified Delphi method as the research design, utilising a structured, double-round process of expert consultation to elicit, evaluate, and refine professional judgements. Beyond consensus building, the Delphi process functioned as a systematic mechanism for knowledge transfer, enabling the exchange of experiential, contextual, and tacit knowledge among experts. Through controlled feedback across successive rounds, panellists were encouraged to reflect on aggregated responses, reassess their positions, and externalise their implicit professional understandings of instructional information literacy practice. Data generated across the Delphi rounds were analysed using thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns, shared meanings, and knowledge structures emerging from expert interactions. The findings resulted in the development of three interrelated constructs: a core competency index, human attributes, and information literacy modules. These constructs reflect not only agreed-upon competencies but also the cumulative professional knowledge that has been transferred and stabilised through the Delphi process. This study offers both practical and theoretical contributions to librarianship and information management. Practically, it provides an empirically grounded competency framework to guide the training, professional development, and performance enhancement of teaching librarians involved in instructional activities. Theoretically, it extends Delphi-based research by demonstrating how the method supports structured knowledge transfer, expert knowledge codification, and the operationalisation of information literacy competencies. By situating the study within a non-Western higher education context, it further broadens the epistemological and contextual scope of information literacy and competency research in academic libraries.