Library Organizational Transformation

"With the coming of the information era, the environment that library facing with is becoming extremely turbulent and complex. To change is the unique constant theme of the new age. The organizational transformation of library is not an isolated phenomena, in fact, it is an inevitable course when industrial society converting into information society. If put into the macro background of the information age, the transformation is a reflection of the post-industrial society theoretic in L1S discipline. It is in the coincident transformational trend of other kinds of organizations including those commercial counterparts and it represents one face of a much larger wave that has arisen in response to pressures put on by the information era.The organizational transformation of library originates from the digitalization of information resource and the broadly use of network technology. The technology that library can utilize has been changing quickly, IT has become the operational foundation of the whole organization. However, as Prof. William R. King has pointed out "An organizational transformation is best defined as a planned change designed to significantly improve overall organizational performance by changing the behavior of a majority of people in the organization." Instead of passively following the technological change, library should actively change its functional structure and operational method as to confront the challenge of the information age. Hence, this paper is to understand and research the ongoing changes of library from the organizational management point of view rather than a technological standpoint. The purpose of this paper is to explore those common laws behind the transformation phenomenon, to interpret and dissect these phenomenon with such laws, and to forecast the possible change and instruct the change with such laws.The progress in organization theoretic is surveyed foremost. The dominant managerial ideology that library has been holding is a result of the mass industrial society. The classic organization theoretic represented by Taylor, Fayol and Webber' 3 speculation constitutes the prevailing bureaucratic organizational form that library has been holding till now. The division of jobs and rights established tight hierarchy institution. With the rendering of general system theory, .the panorama of organization can firstly be recognized integrally. The organization is an open system, which maintains the balance between itself and the environment and pursues its survival and development through their mutual interaction (the environment includes technology, institution, custom and culture and other factors). Therefore, the organization should make its relevant change according to the needs of environment. The neo-institution school further intensifies the understanding of environment. It distinguishes the two notions of "technology environment " and "institution environment" , which shifts us from the technology factor to pay more attention to the rationality foundation of organizational transformation.The principal analyzing framework of this paper bases on Kurt Levin ' s famous three-phase model of organizational development. Levin clarified that any organizational development must experience three phases: freezing, change and re-freezing. The freezing phase refers to the process to understand the needs for change, to inspire unsatisfactory to realism and to breed the desire to spurn the old. At the same time, the influence of the change must be understood and a secure sense must be created. The change phase is a process transiting from the old stage to the new one, which points out the direction of reform, applies transformation and guide the staff to form new attitude and behavior. The re-freezing phase is to secure the attitude and behavior, to let no further change and prevent backward. Levin ' s three-phase model seems quite simple, however, this framework really figures out an integral image of the organizational transformation process.According to Levin ' s model,...