- Email: [email protected]
Victims, villains or victors: The impact of serials automation on a library organization
Victims, Villains or Victors: The Impact of Serials Automation on a Library Organization Margaret McKinley
T h o s e who work with serial publications and in serials processing today are fortunate to be doing so at a time when the impact of serials automation on a library organization can be discussed. Not many years ago, serials automation was tottering along in most libraries: few functions were automated, automation projects were not altogether successful, and, in some libraries, projects had been abandoned in mid-conversion. Several reasons account for the lack of success in serials automation projects. Of significance has been the gap between the state o f the art o f computerassisted processing and the demands imposed by the massive data that must be maintained in any serials processing system, automated or not. Previous generations of computers were unequal to the task o f maintaining massive files with variable length records and of easily manipulating long strings of text. Caring for great files o f Hollerith cards was not a substantial improvement over maintaining Kardex cards or Acme visible file cards. Now, computer technology has advanced to a point at which large files filled with long, variable length records may be easily stored and manipulated. When available technology was inadequate to meet the challenges, library managers and administrators ignored the staggering problems their serials collections presented because there was no alternative to benign neglect. There was no reasonable way to gather the information necessary to reduce waste-
ful purchasing, poor vendor selection, haphazard collection development, and redundant or totally unnecessary clerical operations. Today, however, because of technological advances, collection review, use analysis, budget review, and operational analyses are within the reach of many libraries. With the management information automated files can provide, serials management must be prominent in library operations, proportional to the heavy costs associated with acquiring and maintaining a serials collection. This article is specifically directed to those who deal with the world of serial publications as it is and not as it may be in the distant future. In this lessthan-perfect world, serials librarians and other serials collection caretakers are eager for any assistance in bringing their collections under control. While clutching at the hope it offers, librarians and administrators should be mindful that automation is not a panacea for all ills from which a collection and its associated records suffer. Its benefits will, however, more closely approximate an administrator's objectives if some thought is given to the impact it will have, not only McKinley is Head of the Serials Department, University Research Library, UCLA. An earlier contribution to S R ' s "Chapters in Serials Managem e n t " concerned planning for data conversion work.
SERIALS REVIEW
SUMMER 1984
43
on the manual processes it replaces directly, b u t also on associated dependent or independent processes and functions. Administrators and managers may view the automation process as a mechanical process with straightforward causes and effects. The effects of automation on a library's organization and operation are not simple, observable, and predictable - they are complex and sometimes unexpected. In 1979, Richard Boss noted that "one of the least frequently mentioned risks o f automation is its impact on the library. ''1 Also, the impact differs from library to library as automation is superimposed on manual operations. Priorities and policies differ among libraries. Consequently, a likely solution to a problem faced by one library may be disastrous in another. There is no general prescription for success in every library.
Predicting the Impact of Automation Two variables determine the scope and type of impact that serials automation has on any library organization. First is the extent to which the serials operation has been, or will be, automated. Acquisitions, circulation, recording receipt, claiming, binding, payments, cataloging, replacements, routing lists, and management information may or may not be automated depending on a library's plans or on the commercial system selected. One must remember that if a related aspect of the serials operation has not been automated, there will be no impact on library operations. This may seem painfully obvious, but, in the excitement of switching to an automated system, it may be neglected. For example, if serials acquisitions has been automated, some invaluable management information about fund expenditures or about serials subscription costs in particular subject or geographic areas can make a great difference in the management of book funds and in explaining to users the true cost of maintaining serial titles in esoteric subject fields, used little except by a few scholars. If, on the other hand, a serials acquisitions operation has not been automated, if the process begins and ends with checkin and claiming, then serials managers and library administrators cannot expect to obtain such information and there will be no impact on the library's management information system. Second, the impact of serials automation on a library organization differs among libraries whose practical definitions o f serials vary. For this discussion, a serial is any publication treated as such by a given library. In the context of this presentation that is the only adequate and sufficient definition, since libraries must, in automating their serials files, deal somehow with publications which have been called serials in each o f those libraries. If they choose not to
44
SERIALS R E V I E W
S U M M E R 1984
do so, they must at great trouble and expense, alter the definition so that some will be excluded and others brought within a particular library's definition. If a library excludes monographic series or-certain types of government documents, for example, the impact on various phases of operations will be quite different than if they were included. Development and implementation will be less expensive. File sizes will be smaller. The kind of management information provided will be less extensive, and access to information about serials holdings b y reference staff and the public will be more limited than if documents and monographic series had been included.
Organizational Change The word impact implies that a library embarking on automation will passively accept whatever changes or consequences automation brings, for good or ill. Its staff and clientele, in this scenario, play the roles of victims to that villain, automation. This melodrama has played in some libraries and each serials librarian can cite specific instances and review the plots in detail. It need not happen. With appropriate planning and thoughtful attention to some important factors in the library environment, a library's administration and staff can significantly influence the impact of automation. Organizational change is a phen o m e n o n itself and the effects of changes on an organization may be anticipated and altered. One study is o f particular interest since it discusses organizational change with findings especially relevant to the library environment. Franklin reported in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science on a study of 11 successful and 14 unsuccessful organizations in which there were attempts at making major changes. He identified three general areas in which these two categories differed. First, organizations that are receptive to, and involved in, change are more likely to be successful than those that are most stable and cling to the status quo. Second, internal change agents in the successful organizations were more carefully selected, did not have training before organizational changes were made, and had well-developed problem-solving skills. Problem-solving skills were defined as the ability to identify problems and their causes, to select appropriate interventions, and to sequence them appropriately without causing more problems. Change agents in successful organizations had primary responsibility for interventions instead of assigning this to external change agents. In unsuccessful organizations, change agents had more previous work experience in personnel departments. Change agents in successful organizations were selected from line personnel, not staff, and were not in senior positions uninvolved with production. They were regarded by
peers and superiors as having leadership potential and were interpersonally competent. The third area was specificity of interest and commitment to the development effort. In successful organizations, a specific problem was identified and there was a commitment to a particular development strategy. This included a commitment on the part of top management. Franklin notes, however, that this commitment is by itself not sufficient to insure the success of any development effort. 2 What are the implications o f Franklin's study for librarians and administrators planning to successfully integrate an automated serials system into a library's organization? First, management ought to examine the unalterable characteristics of the environment, the organization, the staff, and the clientele and recognize them as factors which may inhibit the progress of automation projects of any sort. Second, it should identify those characteristics over which it may exercise some measure o f control. Selection of internal change agents is clearly one aspect of planning to which library managers should give a great deal of attention. Assignment o f primary independent responsibility for operations and implementation to an internal change agent rather than to an external change agent is another closely related decision. Library managers should also work toward defining project goals as carefully and as specifically as possible. The library's administrators and managers may assign to themselves a high level of commitment to the project. One writer has commented that a supportive climate has a multiplier effect. Positive attitudes and expectations on the part of management aid the change process. On the other hand, management can inhibit changes if it supports traditional work methods, restricts relationships among departments, and reduces opportunities for creative thinking. "A negative environment can so easily, find excuses or reasons to stop something new from being tried. ''3
Communication Communication is a vitally important aspect of the change process which is interwoven with the factors just discussed. Any journal article or book dealing with managing organizational change, whether library-oriented or not, stresses the importance of full and open communication. The kind o f communication system preferred or favored may, however, vary. Beginning in the 1950s, experiments were conducted to test the effects of various types of centralized or decentralized communication networks. The results consistently demonstrated that with centralized networks, problems were solved more accurately and efficiently than in decentralized networks. In 1964, however, in reviewing these earlier studies, researchers observed an additional factor, unnoticed
before. Problems in those studies had been relatively simple to solve. When experiments utilizing more complex problems were designed, decentralized communication networks proved better for problem solving. 4 The complexity of a problem or problems a library must solve in moving into an automated environment suggests that a decentralized communication network will be superior in solving problems efficiently and accurately. Complex tasks require more communication and information. If all messages must pass through one centralized position, the individual in that position may become overloaded. Even though the task is more than one person can handle, the structure of the network makes it difficult to distribute the work. s These research results suggest that for a library on the brink of or already involved in automation, an important factor in its success may be the formal communication structure of the library as a whole, not merely that of the serials processing and public service operations. For example, must all decisions be made by a very few library officials? Does the staff rely on those officials for all creative or innovative ideas? May various library units or departments deal directly with one another or must all communication be channeled through the library administration? Are useful or imaginative ideas offered by junior or nonprofessional staff encouraged and considered on the ideas' merits? Attention to development of appropriate communication channels and relationships can facilitate the change process and the successful integration of the new automated serials system into the library's structure.
Planning for Automation There are several factors which library management should consider in its planning phase so that the eventual impact of the automation project on the library organization will be as beneficial and as extensive as system designers, serials librarians, and administrators want it. The impact of automation on a library organization has been mentioned as a factor neglected in planning. There are, in addition, some specific topics which are components of this neglect. Planning for adequate management information is often overlooked. Bruer, surveying 45 acquisitions systems, noted that very few produced all the information that might be useful to managers, and even fewer provided collection development information or permitted interaction with cataloging and circulation. He observed that management information beyond the department was basic, even rudimentary, in the systems he surveyed and provision for interfacing with other systems and processes almost nonexistent. Planning for a minimum of redundant data
SERIALS REVIEW
SUMMER 1984
45
gathering is a second, often neglected, aspect of planning. Bruer, speaking of acquisitions systems, noted that "acquisitions does not operate in a vacuum; it is tightly coupled to collection development, cataloging, serials, and circulation and perhaps somewhat less so to other service operations." Yet, he notes that files and data can't be used elsewhere in the library so that the acquisitions systems are " o f limited value to the manager and may even impede the orderly development of library procedures and services." Bruer commented that there was a curiously inadequate amount of planning for automation, especially in the absence of interfaces between systems and in the high degree of redundant keyboarding. 6 An information scientist, a pessimist indeed, remarked that "even more serious is the way in which automated and hence formalized operations reinforce the trend to breaucratization and to fragmentation already present in so many government agencies. ''7 Another expert wrote that "companies pay over and over again to recapture information which is already known to the organization. ''8 When information specialists complain about neglect of an aspect of automation and planning, the library c o m m u n i t y should listen. Quite clearly, planning for serials automation should include a design for interaction with other automated or manual systems. Emphasis should be given to the widest possible use of data gathered, so that it need be gathered and keyboarded only once. For example, must serials data be gathered once for a serials check-in and claiming system, once again for a general bindery system, yet again for cataloging and a final time (one hopes) for a circulation system? Could that data be gathered only once with each succeeding project utilizing and building on data converted in earlier projects? Another aspect in the planning phase of techniI cal services automation projects often overlooked is
involvement of public service staff and consideration of user impact. More than one automated serials pro\cessing system has been developed in which the user and his library liason, the reference librarian, have been neglected in system planning. It should be obvious that participation of public service staff is particularly important at the early phases o f development rather than limiting consultation to a tardy briefing about system specifications or constraints when changes are difficult or impossible to make. While the automation project may be limited, perhaps involving only check-in and claiming, public service staff must be able to interpret records and ask technical services staff to claim missing issues. Library administrators and system designers must decide if public service staff should be expected to interpret complex processing records full of mysterious abbreviations and cryptic notes or if programs will be constructed to produce natural language notes that can
46
SERIALS R E V I E W
SUMMER 1984
be interpreted easily by staff and users. In brief, will the library trade in an arcane manual serials file for an equally arcane computer-based system. We may as well admit it, libraries are difficult to use and the larger the library, the more difficult it is for the occasional user to succeed in a search for material or information. Computers can change that. It is possible to store catalog information centrally so that a user w o n ' t have to trek to six or seven libraries and search in 15 files for information. The user needn't be initiated into the mysteries of searching in main entry files. With programmed instruction, a user can be guided through simple or complex searches without a reference librarian at his or her elbow. Computers can make life easier for the reference librarian and the library user, or their programmers can make it more difficult. Eleanor Montague's remarks are especially relevant to this quest for simplicity. She writes that technology has not produced a revolution in the way libraries are run or the way they serve patrons. "We have not simplified the procedures for, or interaction with, bibliographic apparatus; instead the automated systems are as complex as our previous manual systems . . . . The rule rather than the exception is still to view automated capabilities as one-to-one replacements for manual systems, as an opportunity not only to perpetuate local variations but frequently to consider more o f them. ''9 The impact of interlibrary cooperation is another often neglected aspect of planning for library automation. It should be addressed not only in the planning phase, but throughout the development of the project. There may be a predetermined set of conditions if a commercial service or regional consortium is to be used. These factors affect collection usage and could affect collection development if a library must, for the first time in its history, consider usage by readers from other libraries before discarding a title or must examine collection strengths on which other libraries rely before buying. Would other smaller libraries like to make use of computer time and software or add their serials files to make a regional union listing? In this event, if the library is a small one, will it be able to absorb the usage by other libraries, large and small? Is there an upper limit to outside use?
Organizational Impact This article has devoted considerable space to developing a foundation for understanding the impact which automation will have on a library organization and on how library administrators and serials managers may prepare for it appropriately. Now it is possible to turn to a general discussion of the specific impact of serials automation on a library organization.
Automation will have a p r o f o u n d effect on the general organizational structure of a library. For instance, in implementing OCLC card production over a period of five years, the technical services organization of the Ohio State University Libraries changed quite dramatically. 1° In 1969/70, three department heads reported to the assistant director for technical services. There were four divisions in the acquisitions department, two divisions in the bindery department, and seven divisions in the catalog department. By 1974, four department heads reported to the assistant director. The acquisitions department had three divisions instead of four. The catalog department was down to two divisions from seven, with one division having two sections. The bindery department still had two divisions. A new department, bibliographic records, had been created, with two divisions. The number of divisions in the technical services departments, even allowing for a new department, had been reduced by two. The assistant director for technical services took on additional work in supervising a new department and department head. One explanation for the addition o f a new department and department head is provided by an English writer who asserted that when a data bank is created, the sphere of influence of department heads becomes limited because there is additional interaction between departments. Decisions which could formerly be handled at the departmental level must now be handled at top administrative levels. 11 An explanation of the reduction in the number of divisions can be found in an unlikely example, French cement plants. An information science researcher analyzed organizational changes made in the automation of French cement plants. As in more libraries, there is a clear division of labor and specific skill requirements in the cement plants as well as a hierarchical organizational structure. The researcher observed that some functions were integrated with others and some disintegrated altogether. There were changes in the division of labor although those divisions remained. He noted that authoritarian or hierarchical coordination gave way to a complementary division o f l a b o r ) 2 At OSU, as well, while divisions remain, there are fewer of them and they tend to be more equivalent in organizational position or status. At the same time a new unit with department status was created. Sweeping changes in file organization brought about by automation can also affect library organization. With the advent o f automation, a library finds that it has acquired a single, automated serials file to replace a multiplicity of manual files. Many library organizations are constructed around their major files. The shelflist, card catalog, serials receiving files, payment files, subscription files, and binding files all have their attendants. With a switch to an automated system, there is a single file which can be accessed by
anyone on the library staff by means of terminals, fiche, or paper listings. It is no longer necessary to have staff physically positioned around files. Material need not be passed from check-in to public service preparation or stack processing, or from serials acquisitions to cataloging, since there is only one file. Most serials processing can be handled close to the point of receipt, eliminating loss of time and wasteful expenditure of staff energies in moving material from one location to another. Since there is a central serials holdings record, no matter where material is checked in, a library may receive and check in serials in many locations, but will be able to maintain centralized records. It is interesting to note here that in an u n a u t o m a t e d environment, some serials managers believe that centralized control within a serials department is needed to maintain control over quality and consistency of records, expenditure of b o o k funds, and adherence to collection development policies. In an automated environment, the actual clerical work may be scattered throughout the library organization while central control over policies, procedures, and files is maintained. Finally, careful and thorough planning alone is insufficient to guide the impact of automation on a library organization. Eternal vigilance appears to be the price paid for a successful automation project. Cautious, not to say cynical, library administrators and serials managers will adopt a posture of alert watchfulness and will be sensitive to changes taking place through automation and to potential shifts in direction of policies or procedures. In this regard, one particular consequence of automation deserves mention: the discovery, unanticipated and unwelcome, that the automated serials system has begun to run the serials organization and the library rather than the reverse. An automated system may be developed and maintained as unimaginatively as any manual system. Inflexible designers can forcibly restrain public or technical services or impede the development of new ideas. Library administrators and managers should be alert to that loaded response to any comment, question, or suggestion, "the system w o n ' t permit us to do that." Predetermined limits on innovations and developments mean that the computer-assisted system, like the tail o f the dog, wags its owner, the library. Montague has noted that it is possible to use an automated system as "inefficiently and ineffectively and with as little knowledge of what is going on as with the manual system. ''13 Worse than inefficiency and ineptness are product-oriented solutions, in which the library staff is required to convert their problems to forms which can be solved by the automated system. 14 These problems are, in part, brought about by limitations of current technology in which users must interact with machine systems in very precise, stilted
SERIALS REVIEW
SUMMER 1984
47
ways. That's the bad news. The good news is that serials managers, administrators and librarians, in general, through assertive, intelligent approaches to automation and its impact on a library, can influence future developments.
Summary Perceptive readers may have observed, and regretted, the absence of any discussion of card catalog closings, abolition of serials departments, changes in clerical procedures, or minutiae or any of the other concrete details of library operations so dear to the hearts of us all. The craft of serials management has
scarcely been mentioned. Those topics d i s c u s s e d the nature of organizational change, influencing change, communication, planning for the optimum impact of automation and for flexibility throughout the development and implementation phases - are concepts difficult to introduce into the pragmatic world of libraries. It is difficult to identify causes, to predict effects, and to deal with them. These are, however, critical elements in the success or failure of a serials automation project and a library administration which addresses these issues will manage the changes brought about by automation rather than passively submitting to its consequences.
Notes 1. Richard W. Boss, The Library Manager's Guide to Automation (White Plains, NY: KnowledgeIndustry Publications, 1979), p65. 2. Jerome L. Franklin, "Characteristics of Successful and Unsuccessful Organization Development," Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 12, no. 4 (October/December 1976): 471--492. 3. Liz Burge, "Change Agents or Change Victims? An Exploration of the Relevance of an Innovation Diffusion Model for Library Management," Australian Library Journal 26, no. 18 (November 4, 1977): 313--314.
(Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1980), p867. . Howard Lee Morgan, "Research and Practice in Office Automation," in Information Processing 80, p788. . Eleanor Montague, "Automation and the Library Administrator," Journal of Library Automation 11, no. 4 (December 1978): 321. 10. D. Kaye Gapen and Ichiko T. Morita, "OCLC at OSU: The Effect of the Adoption of OCLC on the Management of Technical Services at a Large Academic Library," Library Resources and Technical Services 22, no. 1 (Winter 1978): 5-21.
4. Joseph H. Reitz, Behavior in Organizations (Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, 1977), p349352.
11. R.W. Boss, p65.
5. J.H. Reitz, p352.
12. Yves Cohen-Hadria, "Automation, Organizational Choices and Social Effects: The Case of the Cement Industry," in Information Processing 80, p913--917.
6. Michael J. Bruer, "Management Information Aspects of Automated Acquisitions Systems," Library Resources and Technical Services 24, no. 4 (Fall 1980): 341-342. 7. Calvin C. Gottlieb, "Computers - A Gift of Fire," in Information Processing 80, Proceedings of IFIP Congress 80, ed. Simon Lavington,
48
SERIALS REVIEW
SUMMER 1984
13. E. Montague, p320--321. 14. David F. Stevens, "Some Cautionary Aphorisms for User-Oriented Computer Management," in Information Processing 80, p793.
@
T h o s e who work with serial publications and in serials processing today are fortunate to be doing so at a time when the impact of serials automation on a library organization can be discussed. Not many years ago, serials automation was tottering along in most libraries: few functions were automated, automation projects were not altogether successful, and, in some libraries, projects had been abandoned in mid-conversion. Several reasons account for the lack of success in serials automation projects. Of significance has been the gap between the state o f the art o f computerassisted processing and the demands imposed by the massive data that must be maintained in any serials processing system, automated or not. Previous generations of computers were unequal to the task o f maintaining massive files with variable length records and of easily manipulating long strings of text. Caring for great files o f Hollerith cards was not a substantial improvement over maintaining Kardex cards or Acme visible file cards. Now, computer technology has advanced to a point at which large files filled with long, variable length records may be easily stored and manipulated. When available technology was inadequate to meet the challenges, library managers and administrators ignored the staggering problems their serials collections presented because there was no alternative to benign neglect. There was no reasonable way to gather the information necessary to reduce waste-
ful purchasing, poor vendor selection, haphazard collection development, and redundant or totally unnecessary clerical operations. Today, however, because of technological advances, collection review, use analysis, budget review, and operational analyses are within the reach of many libraries. With the management information automated files can provide, serials management must be prominent in library operations, proportional to the heavy costs associated with acquiring and maintaining a serials collection. This article is specifically directed to those who deal with the world of serial publications as it is and not as it may be in the distant future. In this lessthan-perfect world, serials librarians and other serials collection caretakers are eager for any assistance in bringing their collections under control. While clutching at the hope it offers, librarians and administrators should be mindful that automation is not a panacea for all ills from which a collection and its associated records suffer. Its benefits will, however, more closely approximate an administrator's objectives if some thought is given to the impact it will have, not only McKinley is Head of the Serials Department, University Research Library, UCLA. An earlier contribution to S R ' s "Chapters in Serials Managem e n t " concerned planning for data conversion work.
SERIALS REVIEW
SUMMER 1984
43
on the manual processes it replaces directly, b u t also on associated dependent or independent processes and functions. Administrators and managers may view the automation process as a mechanical process with straightforward causes and effects. The effects of automation on a library's organization and operation are not simple, observable, and predictable - they are complex and sometimes unexpected. In 1979, Richard Boss noted that "one of the least frequently mentioned risks o f automation is its impact on the library. ''1 Also, the impact differs from library to library as automation is superimposed on manual operations. Priorities and policies differ among libraries. Consequently, a likely solution to a problem faced by one library may be disastrous in another. There is no general prescription for success in every library.
Predicting the Impact of Automation Two variables determine the scope and type of impact that serials automation has on any library organization. First is the extent to which the serials operation has been, or will be, automated. Acquisitions, circulation, recording receipt, claiming, binding, payments, cataloging, replacements, routing lists, and management information may or may not be automated depending on a library's plans or on the commercial system selected. One must remember that if a related aspect of the serials operation has not been automated, there will be no impact on library operations. This may seem painfully obvious, but, in the excitement of switching to an automated system, it may be neglected. For example, if serials acquisitions has been automated, some invaluable management information about fund expenditures or about serials subscription costs in particular subject or geographic areas can make a great difference in the management of book funds and in explaining to users the true cost of maintaining serial titles in esoteric subject fields, used little except by a few scholars. If, on the other hand, a serials acquisitions operation has not been automated, if the process begins and ends with checkin and claiming, then serials managers and library administrators cannot expect to obtain such information and there will be no impact on the library's management information system. Second, the impact of serials automation on a library organization differs among libraries whose practical definitions o f serials vary. For this discussion, a serial is any publication treated as such by a given library. In the context of this presentation that is the only adequate and sufficient definition, since libraries must, in automating their serials files, deal somehow with publications which have been called serials in each o f those libraries. If they choose not to
44
SERIALS R E V I E W
S U M M E R 1984
do so, they must at great trouble and expense, alter the definition so that some will be excluded and others brought within a particular library's definition. If a library excludes monographic series or-certain types of government documents, for example, the impact on various phases of operations will be quite different than if they were included. Development and implementation will be less expensive. File sizes will be smaller. The kind of management information provided will be less extensive, and access to information about serials holdings b y reference staff and the public will be more limited than if documents and monographic series had been included.
Organizational Change The word impact implies that a library embarking on automation will passively accept whatever changes or consequences automation brings, for good or ill. Its staff and clientele, in this scenario, play the roles of victims to that villain, automation. This melodrama has played in some libraries and each serials librarian can cite specific instances and review the plots in detail. It need not happen. With appropriate planning and thoughtful attention to some important factors in the library environment, a library's administration and staff can significantly influence the impact of automation. Organizational change is a phen o m e n o n itself and the effects of changes on an organization may be anticipated and altered. One study is o f particular interest since it discusses organizational change with findings especially relevant to the library environment. Franklin reported in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science on a study of 11 successful and 14 unsuccessful organizations in which there were attempts at making major changes. He identified three general areas in which these two categories differed. First, organizations that are receptive to, and involved in, change are more likely to be successful than those that are most stable and cling to the status quo. Second, internal change agents in the successful organizations were more carefully selected, did not have training before organizational changes were made, and had well-developed problem-solving skills. Problem-solving skills were defined as the ability to identify problems and their causes, to select appropriate interventions, and to sequence them appropriately without causing more problems. Change agents in successful organizations had primary responsibility for interventions instead of assigning this to external change agents. In unsuccessful organizations, change agents had more previous work experience in personnel departments. Change agents in successful organizations were selected from line personnel, not staff, and were not in senior positions uninvolved with production. They were regarded by
peers and superiors as having leadership potential and were interpersonally competent. The third area was specificity of interest and commitment to the development effort. In successful organizations, a specific problem was identified and there was a commitment to a particular development strategy. This included a commitment on the part of top management. Franklin notes, however, that this commitment is by itself not sufficient to insure the success of any development effort. 2 What are the implications o f Franklin's study for librarians and administrators planning to successfully integrate an automated serials system into a library's organization? First, management ought to examine the unalterable characteristics of the environment, the organization, the staff, and the clientele and recognize them as factors which may inhibit the progress of automation projects of any sort. Second, it should identify those characteristics over which it may exercise some measure o f control. Selection of internal change agents is clearly one aspect of planning to which library managers should give a great deal of attention. Assignment o f primary independent responsibility for operations and implementation to an internal change agent rather than to an external change agent is another closely related decision. Library managers should also work toward defining project goals as carefully and as specifically as possible. The library's administrators and managers may assign to themselves a high level of commitment to the project. One writer has commented that a supportive climate has a multiplier effect. Positive attitudes and expectations on the part of management aid the change process. On the other hand, management can inhibit changes if it supports traditional work methods, restricts relationships among departments, and reduces opportunities for creative thinking. "A negative environment can so easily, find excuses or reasons to stop something new from being tried. ''3
Communication Communication is a vitally important aspect of the change process which is interwoven with the factors just discussed. Any journal article or book dealing with managing organizational change, whether library-oriented or not, stresses the importance of full and open communication. The kind o f communication system preferred or favored may, however, vary. Beginning in the 1950s, experiments were conducted to test the effects of various types of centralized or decentralized communication networks. The results consistently demonstrated that with centralized networks, problems were solved more accurately and efficiently than in decentralized networks. In 1964, however, in reviewing these earlier studies, researchers observed an additional factor, unnoticed
before. Problems in those studies had been relatively simple to solve. When experiments utilizing more complex problems were designed, decentralized communication networks proved better for problem solving. 4 The complexity of a problem or problems a library must solve in moving into an automated environment suggests that a decentralized communication network will be superior in solving problems efficiently and accurately. Complex tasks require more communication and information. If all messages must pass through one centralized position, the individual in that position may become overloaded. Even though the task is more than one person can handle, the structure of the network makes it difficult to distribute the work. s These research results suggest that for a library on the brink of or already involved in automation, an important factor in its success may be the formal communication structure of the library as a whole, not merely that of the serials processing and public service operations. For example, must all decisions be made by a very few library officials? Does the staff rely on those officials for all creative or innovative ideas? May various library units or departments deal directly with one another or must all communication be channeled through the library administration? Are useful or imaginative ideas offered by junior or nonprofessional staff encouraged and considered on the ideas' merits? Attention to development of appropriate communication channels and relationships can facilitate the change process and the successful integration of the new automated serials system into the library's structure.
Planning for Automation There are several factors which library management should consider in its planning phase so that the eventual impact of the automation project on the library organization will be as beneficial and as extensive as system designers, serials librarians, and administrators want it. The impact of automation on a library organization has been mentioned as a factor neglected in planning. There are, in addition, some specific topics which are components of this neglect. Planning for adequate management information is often overlooked. Bruer, surveying 45 acquisitions systems, noted that very few produced all the information that might be useful to managers, and even fewer provided collection development information or permitted interaction with cataloging and circulation. He observed that management information beyond the department was basic, even rudimentary, in the systems he surveyed and provision for interfacing with other systems and processes almost nonexistent. Planning for a minimum of redundant data
SERIALS REVIEW
SUMMER 1984
45
gathering is a second, often neglected, aspect of planning. Bruer, speaking of acquisitions systems, noted that "acquisitions does not operate in a vacuum; it is tightly coupled to collection development, cataloging, serials, and circulation and perhaps somewhat less so to other service operations." Yet, he notes that files and data can't be used elsewhere in the library so that the acquisitions systems are " o f limited value to the manager and may even impede the orderly development of library procedures and services." Bruer commented that there was a curiously inadequate amount of planning for automation, especially in the absence of interfaces between systems and in the high degree of redundant keyboarding. 6 An information scientist, a pessimist indeed, remarked that "even more serious is the way in which automated and hence formalized operations reinforce the trend to breaucratization and to fragmentation already present in so many government agencies. ''7 Another expert wrote that "companies pay over and over again to recapture information which is already known to the organization. ''8 When information specialists complain about neglect of an aspect of automation and planning, the library c o m m u n i t y should listen. Quite clearly, planning for serials automation should include a design for interaction with other automated or manual systems. Emphasis should be given to the widest possible use of data gathered, so that it need be gathered and keyboarded only once. For example, must serials data be gathered once for a serials check-in and claiming system, once again for a general bindery system, yet again for cataloging and a final time (one hopes) for a circulation system? Could that data be gathered only once with each succeeding project utilizing and building on data converted in earlier projects? Another aspect in the planning phase of techniI cal services automation projects often overlooked is
involvement of public service staff and consideration of user impact. More than one automated serials pro\cessing system has been developed in which the user and his library liason, the reference librarian, have been neglected in system planning. It should be obvious that participation of public service staff is particularly important at the early phases o f development rather than limiting consultation to a tardy briefing about system specifications or constraints when changes are difficult or impossible to make. While the automation project may be limited, perhaps involving only check-in and claiming, public service staff must be able to interpret records and ask technical services staff to claim missing issues. Library administrators and system designers must decide if public service staff should be expected to interpret complex processing records full of mysterious abbreviations and cryptic notes or if programs will be constructed to produce natural language notes that can
46
SERIALS R E V I E W
SUMMER 1984
be interpreted easily by staff and users. In brief, will the library trade in an arcane manual serials file for an equally arcane computer-based system. We may as well admit it, libraries are difficult to use and the larger the library, the more difficult it is for the occasional user to succeed in a search for material or information. Computers can change that. It is possible to store catalog information centrally so that a user w o n ' t have to trek to six or seven libraries and search in 15 files for information. The user needn't be initiated into the mysteries of searching in main entry files. With programmed instruction, a user can be guided through simple or complex searches without a reference librarian at his or her elbow. Computers can make life easier for the reference librarian and the library user, or their programmers can make it more difficult. Eleanor Montague's remarks are especially relevant to this quest for simplicity. She writes that technology has not produced a revolution in the way libraries are run or the way they serve patrons. "We have not simplified the procedures for, or interaction with, bibliographic apparatus; instead the automated systems are as complex as our previous manual systems . . . . The rule rather than the exception is still to view automated capabilities as one-to-one replacements for manual systems, as an opportunity not only to perpetuate local variations but frequently to consider more o f them. ''9 The impact of interlibrary cooperation is another often neglected aspect of planning for library automation. It should be addressed not only in the planning phase, but throughout the development of the project. There may be a predetermined set of conditions if a commercial service or regional consortium is to be used. These factors affect collection usage and could affect collection development if a library must, for the first time in its history, consider usage by readers from other libraries before discarding a title or must examine collection strengths on which other libraries rely before buying. Would other smaller libraries like to make use of computer time and software or add their serials files to make a regional union listing? In this event, if the library is a small one, will it be able to absorb the usage by other libraries, large and small? Is there an upper limit to outside use?
Organizational Impact This article has devoted considerable space to developing a foundation for understanding the impact which automation will have on a library organization and on how library administrators and serials managers may prepare for it appropriately. Now it is possible to turn to a general discussion of the specific impact of serials automation on a library organization.
Automation will have a p r o f o u n d effect on the general organizational structure of a library. For instance, in implementing OCLC card production over a period of five years, the technical services organization of the Ohio State University Libraries changed quite dramatically. 1° In 1969/70, three department heads reported to the assistant director for technical services. There were four divisions in the acquisitions department, two divisions in the bindery department, and seven divisions in the catalog department. By 1974, four department heads reported to the assistant director. The acquisitions department had three divisions instead of four. The catalog department was down to two divisions from seven, with one division having two sections. The bindery department still had two divisions. A new department, bibliographic records, had been created, with two divisions. The number of divisions in the technical services departments, even allowing for a new department, had been reduced by two. The assistant director for technical services took on additional work in supervising a new department and department head. One explanation for the addition o f a new department and department head is provided by an English writer who asserted that when a data bank is created, the sphere of influence of department heads becomes limited because there is additional interaction between departments. Decisions which could formerly be handled at the departmental level must now be handled at top administrative levels. 11 An explanation of the reduction in the number of divisions can be found in an unlikely example, French cement plants. An information science researcher analyzed organizational changes made in the automation of French cement plants. As in more libraries, there is a clear division of labor and specific skill requirements in the cement plants as well as a hierarchical organizational structure. The researcher observed that some functions were integrated with others and some disintegrated altogether. There were changes in the division of labor although those divisions remained. He noted that authoritarian or hierarchical coordination gave way to a complementary division o f l a b o r ) 2 At OSU, as well, while divisions remain, there are fewer of them and they tend to be more equivalent in organizational position or status. At the same time a new unit with department status was created. Sweeping changes in file organization brought about by automation can also affect library organization. With the advent o f automation, a library finds that it has acquired a single, automated serials file to replace a multiplicity of manual files. Many library organizations are constructed around their major files. The shelflist, card catalog, serials receiving files, payment files, subscription files, and binding files all have their attendants. With a switch to an automated system, there is a single file which can be accessed by
anyone on the library staff by means of terminals, fiche, or paper listings. It is no longer necessary to have staff physically positioned around files. Material need not be passed from check-in to public service preparation or stack processing, or from serials acquisitions to cataloging, since there is only one file. Most serials processing can be handled close to the point of receipt, eliminating loss of time and wasteful expenditure of staff energies in moving material from one location to another. Since there is a central serials holdings record, no matter where material is checked in, a library may receive and check in serials in many locations, but will be able to maintain centralized records. It is interesting to note here that in an u n a u t o m a t e d environment, some serials managers believe that centralized control within a serials department is needed to maintain control over quality and consistency of records, expenditure of b o o k funds, and adherence to collection development policies. In an automated environment, the actual clerical work may be scattered throughout the library organization while central control over policies, procedures, and files is maintained. Finally, careful and thorough planning alone is insufficient to guide the impact of automation on a library organization. Eternal vigilance appears to be the price paid for a successful automation project. Cautious, not to say cynical, library administrators and serials managers will adopt a posture of alert watchfulness and will be sensitive to changes taking place through automation and to potential shifts in direction of policies or procedures. In this regard, one particular consequence of automation deserves mention: the discovery, unanticipated and unwelcome, that the automated serials system has begun to run the serials organization and the library rather than the reverse. An automated system may be developed and maintained as unimaginatively as any manual system. Inflexible designers can forcibly restrain public or technical services or impede the development of new ideas. Library administrators and managers should be alert to that loaded response to any comment, question, or suggestion, "the system w o n ' t permit us to do that." Predetermined limits on innovations and developments mean that the computer-assisted system, like the tail o f the dog, wags its owner, the library. Montague has noted that it is possible to use an automated system as "inefficiently and ineffectively and with as little knowledge of what is going on as with the manual system. ''13 Worse than inefficiency and ineptness are product-oriented solutions, in which the library staff is required to convert their problems to forms which can be solved by the automated system. 14 These problems are, in part, brought about by limitations of current technology in which users must interact with machine systems in very precise, stilted
SERIALS REVIEW
SUMMER 1984
47
ways. That's the bad news. The good news is that serials managers, administrators and librarians, in general, through assertive, intelligent approaches to automation and its impact on a library, can influence future developments.
Summary Perceptive readers may have observed, and regretted, the absence of any discussion of card catalog closings, abolition of serials departments, changes in clerical procedures, or minutiae or any of the other concrete details of library operations so dear to the hearts of us all. The craft of serials management has
scarcely been mentioned. Those topics d i s c u s s e d the nature of organizational change, influencing change, communication, planning for the optimum impact of automation and for flexibility throughout the development and implementation phases - are concepts difficult to introduce into the pragmatic world of libraries. It is difficult to identify causes, to predict effects, and to deal with them. These are, however, critical elements in the success or failure of a serials automation project and a library administration which addresses these issues will manage the changes brought about by automation rather than passively submitting to its consequences.
Notes 1. Richard W. Boss, The Library Manager's Guide to Automation (White Plains, NY: KnowledgeIndustry Publications, 1979), p65. 2. Jerome L. Franklin, "Characteristics of Successful and Unsuccessful Organization Development," Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 12, no. 4 (October/December 1976): 471--492. 3. Liz Burge, "Change Agents or Change Victims? An Exploration of the Relevance of an Innovation Diffusion Model for Library Management," Australian Library Journal 26, no. 18 (November 4, 1977): 313--314.
(Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1980), p867. . Howard Lee Morgan, "Research and Practice in Office Automation," in Information Processing 80, p788. . Eleanor Montague, "Automation and the Library Administrator," Journal of Library Automation 11, no. 4 (December 1978): 321. 10. D. Kaye Gapen and Ichiko T. Morita, "OCLC at OSU: The Effect of the Adoption of OCLC on the Management of Technical Services at a Large Academic Library," Library Resources and Technical Services 22, no. 1 (Winter 1978): 5-21.
4. Joseph H. Reitz, Behavior in Organizations (Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, 1977), p349352.
11. R.W. Boss, p65.
5. J.H. Reitz, p352.
12. Yves Cohen-Hadria, "Automation, Organizational Choices and Social Effects: The Case of the Cement Industry," in Information Processing 80, p913--917.
6. Michael J. Bruer, "Management Information Aspects of Automated Acquisitions Systems," Library Resources and Technical Services 24, no. 4 (Fall 1980): 341-342. 7. Calvin C. Gottlieb, "Computers - A Gift of Fire," in Information Processing 80, Proceedings of IFIP Congress 80, ed. Simon Lavington,
48
SERIALS REVIEW
SUMMER 1984
13. E. Montague, p320--321. 14. David F. Stevens, "Some Cautionary Aphorisms for User-Oriented Computer Management," in Information Processing 80, p793.
@