Having established the nature of the changing technological environment within which the participants were working, the investigation then focused on the impact the adoption of these new technologies was having upon the library workforce. Forty-three impact categories emerged from the initial segmentation and coding of the data. This is a reasonably-high number of impacts to manifest within a discrete workplace environment and provides some evidence of the level of concern participants felt in relation to the environmental change they were experiencing.
The most major categories that emerged from the data reveal the perceived need for staff to acquire the skills necessary to leverage the potential benefits of the technology their libraries have implemented (see Table 5.3 below). The ‘Need to up-skill’ (mentioned by slightly less than half the sample), evident in responses relating to the need for all staff to acquire the skills needed to master the new technologies, emerged as the impact of most common concern. Staff revealed a degree of urgency in their responses, with comments such as
121
“There is a requirement to be constantly learning new skills” [F1] and “You have got to keep the skills up, you can't sit back, it’s always changing” [I3], indicating that the impact was forcing a response from staff, the option of doing nothing was not seen as possible.
Table 5.3
Technology Adoption Impact by Category
Category Position Library Manager Systems Librarian Librarian
Staff need to up skill 5 5 7
Some staff are keen to lead, others prefer to follow
4 5 2
More work has resulted 2 5 1
Better service provision 1 5 2
More technology-related questions are directed to staff
2 1 3
Some staff experiment with technology
3 1 2
Little impact 3 0 3
The concept of early and late innovation adopters, discussed previously with Rogers’ innovation adopter categories, emerged in the category ‘Some staff are keen to lead [change or adoption of new technologies], others prefer to follow’ (a quarter of the sample). Participants observed that “some staff are really motivated to learn, others are a bit apprehensive about taking on new technologies” [I2] and:
Some staff are okay, are welcoming mobile technologies ... others take longer to get used to the changes. Those who are okay take on a more specialised role, managing and looking after them [J1a].
Participants felt that the new technologies were sorting out the staff who were interested in meeting the challenges from those who delayed developing competence. Terms such as “apprehensive” and “not capable” related to perceived ease of use of a system and the following comment that “More people are asking how to connect to wireless, so library staff have to learn new technologies” [A3] indicated that staff believed there are benefits to be gained from using the system and that, eventually, competency would be standard practice.
122
This category displays similarities to another commonly-mentioned impact ‘Some staff experiment with technology’, wherein participants described the situation arising in their libraries of individuals or small groups of staff experimenting with technology and gaining self-taught skills in the process. In both these categories, what emerged clearly was the belief that by up-skilling and engaging in innovation, library staff themselves were responsible for the change in behaviour. Respondents across the three position types noted attitude was critical in moving into a new environment. This was regarded by the researcher as indication of intention to work effectively within the mobile technology environment.
Other categories including frequently-mentioned impacts indicate that participants believed a greater amount of work resulted from the adoption of new technologies, and that library users had higher expectations of library staff as a consequence, but the end result was a better provision of services. The following comment provides an example of perceived benefits:
Information is getting to students easier and quicker. Less library staff are involved in getting information out; it is an instant, easy way of communicating. Quite often we get instant replies, so books no longer just sit waiting. Emailing is now considered out-of-date [F3].
Another frequently-mentioned category, ‘Little impact’, discussed by both library managers and qualified librarians, included comments that suggested either those libraries had already integrated technology sufficiently into their normal workflows that no change or disruption had been obvious, for example:
Wi-Fi – this has had little impact – the staff are used to the introduction, it is standard work [M3],
or that they had not moved down this path yet,
There has been a minimal impact of technologies upon our library [J1].
The latter comment does not indicate whether the lack of impact arises from a library management decision or from wider, organisational policies.
Other impacts participants had noticed upon the library workforce included greater involvement of library staff in setting up technology, a blurring of required workplace skills,
123
which enabled library staff “to collaborate with IT and learning advisors” [F1], frustration in relation to the lack of available technology or resourcing, resulting in:
A lack of implementation. The lack of new technology hardware is affecting library staff. It is frustrating that we don’t have wireless or other mobile or new technologies in general [E2],
or, equally problematic,
Some staff have access to iPhones, but it’s personal access only … The IT unit does not lend out technology devices. We had to write a business case to the CE to purchase an iPad [E3].
A recurrent impact related to the benefits derived from the new technologies. The increased speed of operations was cited frequently throughout the interviews; the greater knowledge and expertise staff had acquired were viewed as advantageous, for example, “the eLearning Librarian … is very comfortable with technology. She doesn’t think of technology at all, this is just the way she wants to communicate” [B1]; and the different mind-set needed appeared to be developing staff in positive ways, indicating such opportunities as:
There are also different ways of doing things we have done before, for example, Chat Reference. There are no visual cues from the student, your style needs to change, you need to adjust to a different environment. People deal with this differently [B3].
Awareness, not only of what students needed but also of how they planned to access that information was seen as another positive impact, attracting comments such as, “We can't be the dinosaur any more, we must be relevant to the students” [N1]. Concomitant with such changes in attitude was the ability to be versatile or accepting of the notion that opportunities were available through a change in focus around processes, positions and expertise, for example:
There is more demand on staff, infrastructure, IT support, it is giving us a new range of skills and also gives us an opportunity to think of new ways of using old skills, so things that have been around for a while can be used in an educational way than perhaps the way in which they were intended [I3].
124
The image the library presented of itself, noted one participant, was being altered through the adoption of new technologies, with the impact occurring in the form of how the library was perceived by its stakeholders:
It is important for us to stay credible as far as IT is concerned, not just be seen as stamping books. If staff and students associate library staff with new technologies this has quite an impact upon our reputation [G3].
Not all impacts discussed by participants were considered beneficial. Frustration emerged in a range of more negative comments. As noted above, categories which emerged from the initial analysis related to technology failing to perform as required and the time involved in dealing with this. A participant noted “There is some tension when wifi wasn't working” [D2] and another expressed the expectation that their organisation and management needed to set directions, “we do have a new manager who has come in place and she has made it quite clear that new technological developments will be very much a part of their future” [J1]. Other participants noted that the implementation of new technologies had resulted in additional workload and their colleagues were dissatisfied with this lack of planning “they are not against technology per se, but in certain instances … [when they are] busy with other duties, they don’t want extra things loaded on them” [N2] and, “It all adds to the workload, we don’t often get rid of things; when we introduce new things, we also keep the old method” [M1]. Additional comments indicated that some staff were either afraid of, or resistant to, the new technology, for example, “For some, it is very exciting - new possibilities, for others it is a bit scary” [J2], and “Most of the staff who work on the Information Desk seem to be resistant to the chat service” [N2].
On the other hand, apparent lack of organisational commitment had caused problems, such as:
The staff are frustrated that we do not have the money to do things they would like to do. We don't have cell phones ourselves, we are restricted to having to text through a PC. It can be limiting and a bit frustrating for staff as well. The Library is not seen as involved with technology by a senior manager. There is a cost factor also. The manager sees it as an ongoing cost [D3].
The intermediate, focused coding phase of data analysis established the emergence of four more conceptual themes. These are described below, in order of number of categories
125
aligning with the theme, from greatest to least. The definitions were created by the researcher for the purpose of the present investigation:
1. Processes and relationships – defined as interpersonal work-related relationships which exist and develop within an organisation, and a range of interrelated work tasks intended to achieve a specified result
2. Attitude – defined as a disposition towards an event, an object or a person
3. Organisational support – defined as employees’ perception of their organisation’s response to, and acknowledgment of, their individual and group contribution and value
4. Job design – aspects of a job, such as content, methods, and relationships, required to fulfil technological and organisational requirements as well as recognising the contribution of the job holder
The themes indicate that the VET library staff sample were aware of a variety of impacts upon the workforce. It is worth noting the tone apparent within the categories. Of the overall 43 emergent categories, over half indicated a positive view of the impacts, for example, ‘Library staff are innovative with technology’, about a quarter adopted a more negative, critical tone, for example, ‘Lack of technology availability is frustrating’, and the remaining were neutral, in the sense that staff were coping as usual and the changes were another iteration of what libraries had always done, providing facilitated access to information for users.
The majority of the impacts related to established processes and the requirement to alter these. Secondly, participants were aware that attitude towards technology was indicative of the staff member’s likelihood to use technology effectively. Management-related aspects of organisational support and job design came into sharp focus, possibly as a result of change- related apprehensiveness. The conceptual themes indicate VET library staff were conscious of the immediate consequences of the range of new technology implementations discussed in the previous section.