The IMPEL2 Project at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle is a Supporting Study of the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) in the UK. Among the stated objctives of the programme is to develop "the use of IT to improve delivery of information through increased use of electronic library services, to allow academic libraries to cope better with growth, to explore different models of intellectual property management, and to encourage new methods of scholarly publishing." The programme comprises over 60 individual projects in the following categories:
IMPEL2 is concerned with the human, organisational, social and cultural which underly all such electronic library developments. The project is the second phase of an earlier IMPEL (Impact on People of Electronic Libraries), referred to as IMPEL1. The project team is headed by Professor Joan Day, Head of the Department of Information & Library Management and by Graham Walton, Faculty Librarian for Health, Social Work and Education. This combination ensures that the academic input is tempered by practice.
IMPEL1 was based on case studies in 6 varied UK universities where a total of 82 interviews with a range of library and related support staff were conducted. These were underpinned by questionnaires and scrutiny of documentation from each institution. IMPEL1 asked two basic questions:
"What are the impacts on you, your work and your environment of an increasingly electronic campus?"
"What are they key issues surrounding the management of an increasingly electronic campus?"
IMPEL1 indicated several key issues and it is these which form the core of IMPEL2:
The approach is essentially exploratory and therefore very qualitative in nature. Interviews are in-depth, semi-structured, open and flexible, designed to get close to the real experience of people and the meanings behind their experience.
IMPEL2 broadens the scope of the early project, approaching the subject from 4 directions through 4 related mini projects, each with its own focus:
The same qualitative methodology as in IMPEL1 is used although IMPEL2 is a broader and deeper study (around 28 institutions). Computer software for indexing and analysis of textual data will be used to ensure comparability of findings across the four studies. The data collection phase is underway at the time of writing.
Oxford English Disctionary describes culture mainly from an anthropological point of view:
'A particular form or type of intellectual development. Also, the civilisation, customs, artistic achievements etc of a people especially at a certain stage of its development.'
Paul Bate in his book 'Strategies for Cultural Change' (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1994) lists no less than 21 definitions of culture, including:
The writer T.S. Eliot's definition is as follows and is possibly the most useful:
"Culture is not merely the sum of several activities but a way of life.'"
Considering culture and cultural change as it relates to the Higher Education library and information context, there may not be evidence of a new way of life, but there is certainly a new way of work and a new way of thinking.
Firstly, looking outside, at society and the influence of government in the UK, the following trends can be observed:
Higher Education is asked to do more with less. The balance between an academic culture and a business culture is shifting.
Every academic institution experiences the knock-on effects of these changes. How are they responding? How are they changing their thinking?
At the next level, how are academic departments responding?
The picture described is a turbulent and pressurised one. One of eLib's premises is that Information Technology and the electronic library have the potential to reduce those pressures, but bring their own particular pressures with them. Library and Information Services are caught in the crossfire.
How are Information Services (including computing, media, learning support, educational development) responding?
The list is endless. The point to make is that each of these areas harbours issues of cultural change which impinge on individuals as well as groups.
Everyone can identify impacts of new working practice which affect them personally. There is a tendency to see work as the sum of several activities without appreciating the magnitude of the changes surrounding it, resulting in `cultural lag:'
"The condition which ensues when certain elements of culture change more slowly than other elements."
We hope that IMPEL2 will go some way towards reducing the cultural lag between strategies, structures, training etc, the changing demands of HE and the enormous advances of technology and the electronic library. The project team will feel happy if by the end of the project they have:
For more information see http://www.unn.ac.uk/~liw5/impel2.html
ANGLO_NORDIC SEMINAR ON NETWORKING
Webpage by Isobel Stark of UKOLN
Last updated 14-Apr-1997