IMPEL2: Monitoring Organisational and cultural Change
- Project web site
- http://ilm.unn.ac.uk/impel
- Programme area
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Supporting Studies
- Contact details
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Prof Joan Day, Project Co-Leader,
Department of Information & Library Management, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST.
Phone: 0191 227 4917 Fax: 0191 227 3671
Email: joan.day@unn.ac.ukGraham Walton, Project Co-Leader,
Department of Information & Library Management, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST.
Phone: 0191 227 4137 Fax: 0191 227 4419
Email: graham.walton@unn.ac.ukCatherine Edwards, Project Co-ordinator,
Department of Information & Library Management, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST.
Phone: 0191 227 3222/4917 Fax: 0191 227 3671
Email: catherine.edwards@unn.ac.uk
Project description
as of 14th January 1997
Introduction
"As a change agent, information technology is almost without peer." [1] However, academic libraries are affected not only by technological change but also by unprecedented change in UK Higher Education itself with increasing student numbers, financial stringency, changing emphasis between teaching and learning, amounting indeed to a radically different educational infrastructure and environment.
The convergence of information with computing and telecommunications technologies has not focused enough on the human factors in the change process, despite the fact that a library's most important resource is its staff. [2] A two-year project, the IMPEL Project (IMpact on People of Electronic Libraries) investigated the social, organisational and cultural impacts on academic library staff of working in an increasingly electronic environment. It was based on case studies in 6 UK academic libraries. Key issues emerging from the work relate to:
- Vision for the networked campus
- Exposition and implementation of strategy
- Relations between groups (eg library, computer, academic staff)
- Training and development
- Management structures
- Management of change
- Staff Study Continues to monitor the impacts of the electronic environment on library and related support staff and to draw out the key issues in the management of the networked campus.
- User Study Investigates the impact of the electronic library on academic teaching staff and students.
- Resource Based Learning Study Investigates the impacts on library and information services of resource based learning policies.
- Staff Development and Training Study Focuses on the issues of training and development for library and information staff working in an increasingly electronic environment.
- Evaluation Study An evaluation of the EduLib and Netskills projects, two eLib projects delivering complementary types of training to users and providers of electronic systems and sources.
Key Deliverables
- A macro level approach to monitoring change associated with the electronic library in a turbulent educational environment.
- Monitoring of the general effects of staff training and development programmes under eLib.
- A basis for more informed decision-making and a clearer picture of the role of academic libraries in the context of national teaching and learning initiatives and in support of research.
- Regional seminars, supporting the management of change during and beyond eLib.
- A knowledge base for teachers of information and library science as they equip students for work in a changing environment.
- A checklist for the good management of the networked campus.
References
[1] Woodsworth, A., Maylone, T., Sywak, M. the Information Job Family: results of an exploratory study. Library Trends 41 (2) 1992, 250-268.
[2] Edwards, C., Day, J.M. and Walton, G. Key areas in the management of change in Higher Education libraries in the 1990s: relevance of the IMPEL Project. British Journal of Academic Librarianship 8 (3) 1993, 139-177.