The Impact of Electronic Journals on Organizational Structure and Division of Labor in University Libraries

• Main Authors: Liu, Wen-i, 劉玟怡
• Other Authors: 范豪英
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2002
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/09851402953915250287

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 圖書資訊學研究所 === 90 === Scholarly journals play an important role in university library collections. Over the past few years the electronic journals have been rapidly developed and earnestly studied. Quite a few researches indicated that electronic journals have influenced the organizational structure and division of labor in many American acadeimic university libraries; however, there are few researches addressed the situations of university libraries in Taiwan until recently. It is the purpose of this research to study the impacts of the electronic journals on organizational structure and division of labor, and the expectation of the intermediate-level supervisors on the organizational adjustment in university libraries for the reference of scheme in organizational structure when electronic journals are considered. This work studied the influence of electronic journals on organizational structure in libraries. Two questionnaires were administrated. The First questionnaire investigated the issue “the organizational structure of electronic journals’ management in university libraries”, which investigated the work situations of electronic journals and the effects on librarians of 29 national university libraries and 32 private university libraries in Taiwan. The other questionnaires investigating “the organizational adjustments of university libraries” were sent to 158 librarians. To explore the issue of organizational adjustments and specialization, the subjects of study were chosen from the intermediate-level supervisors or persons in charge of manage electronic journals. A total of 41 libraries responded to the questionnaire of “the organizational structure of electronic journals’ management in university libraries”. The return rate was approximately 67.21%. A total of 105 librarians responded to the questionnaire of “the organizational adjustments of university libraries”. The return rate was approximately 66.46%. Data were analyzed through SPSS（Statistical Package for Social Science） and EXCEL. The main analyzing methods were frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations, etc. The research found that both printed and electronic journals were used in university library collections. Moreover, just 12.2% universities libraries centralized electronic journals processing in one division. There were many divisions related to electronic journals, and there were 3/4 university libraries cooperatively managing electronic journals through several divisions. The boundary between technical services division and public services division were vague; this condition was especially obvious in the divisions of journals, reference, and information. The future adjustment on organizational structure was to focus on manpower. In other respects, the amount of printed journal subscriptions have not been significantly reduced. Therefore, the workload has not been reduced. On the other hand, the workload of electronic journals processing has increased progressively with the increased electronic journal subscriptions. Moreover, electronic journals required librarians having more skills and abilities in many areas. In conclusion, the librarians working in university libraries have been affected by electronic journals on organizational structure and division of labor. They expected that organizational structure could be adjusted by three modes: 1. to create a new division or position to take charge of the tasks of electronic journals; 2. to form a project team or task force that are divided beyond functions; 3. to coordinate by task-related librarians. Most repliers that expect to form an exclusive division to manage electronic journals suggest to manage all kinds of electronic resources by this division. Five suggestions based on the results of this study are as follows. 1. Establish an appropriate mode to adjust organizational structure and division of labor according to the internal and external library environments. 2. Draw up the distribution of funds as early as possible. 3. Develop adequate channels of communication for managing electronic journals. 4. Provide various learning channels to train librarians to own more abilities in managing electronic journals. 5. Reinforce cooperations with other libraries or organizations.