| Libraries have undergone a remarkable transformation in the past 20 years due, in large part, to the introduction of computer-based information technologies. This ethnographic case study of an academic library in the age of electronic information focuses on organizational culture and organizational change. Organizational culture is defined as the shared, interactive, recreative pattern of intrinsic factors (such as beliefs, values, assumptions and ideologies) as manifested in extrinsic factors (such as language, behaviors, espoused values, and artifacts) of a group of people, constructed over time, as the result of their social interaction. Cultures provide members with meaning, anxiety reduction, and a way of interpreting new developments in terms of the old; as such, they are inherently conservative and resistant to change.; In order to give voice to multiple viewpoints, the library was studied from the three perspective framework developed by Joanne Martin and Debra E. Meyerson; it includes integration, differentiation, and fragmentation views of the library's culture. The integration study focuses on consensus and examines a dominant culture of reference and instruction which took shape in the presence of information technology; the culture serves to intensify the teaching role of the librarians and enhance their faculty status. The differentiation study focuses on dissensus and demonstrates that the introduction of technology has also engendered several subcultures; two of these, the systems support team subculture and the branch librarians' subculture are described at length. Finally, the fragmentation view uncovers the anxieties and ambiguities experienced by organization members which arise from concerns about the future of librarianship; faculty status; relationships with students, faculty, and other stakeholders; and the possibility of deprofessionalization, Transformational leadership and power relationships play major roles in the ongoing enactment of the culture. The study addresses matters of immediate and vital concern to academic administrators, librarians, library educators, and anyone concerned with the social implications of computers in the workplace. |
