What Does a Newcomer Digital Librarian Need to Know?Exploring Information Seeking Behavior of Newcomer Digital Librarians in Academic Libraries during

Organizational Entry

Ming-Hsin ChiuSchool of Library and Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 4216

H.C. White Hall, 600 N. Park Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706; Tel: 608-658-0886

minghsinchiu@wisc.edu

Digital librarianship, as a newly-created interdisciplinary specialization withinlibrarianship, does not have a strong support for newcomer organizational socializationas the specialization itself is still evolving. This exploratory study, as one part of mydissertation, investigates the organizational socialization processes of newcomerdigital librarians in ARL academic libraries. Following the well-developed procedures ofDervin’s Sense-Making approach, this study focuses on the proactive, user-centeredinformation seeking practices and processes during organizational entry. Specifically,the study investigates four dimensions of organizational socialization sense-making,including (1) situation: organizational situations that lead to needs for socializationinformation seeking; (2) gap: questions and confusions newcomer digital librarianshave in situations in which information needs arise; (3) bridge: information seekingtactics that digital librarians use to acquire socialization information; and (4) outcome:positive and negative outcomes of socialization information acquisition.

Introduction

Organizational socialization is the process by which a newcomer acquires the attitudes,

behaviors, knowledge, and skills he or she needs to participate as an organization member (Van

Maanen & Schein, 1979). Because of the very special nature of academic libraries, new academic

librarians must cope with uncertain forces associated with technological advancement, increased

accountability, rising service and research expectations in order to become fully functioning

members of academic culture (Black & Leysen, 2002). Nofsinger and Lee (1994) argue that

newly hired librarians may need extended periods of time to complete the assimilation process

because of “the magnitude and complexity of an academic library, the diversity within individual

units, and the changing objectives and priorities of library administrators” (p. 163).

In an era in which electronic resources have become an integral component of library collections

at all academic institutions, digital librarianship as a fusion of two professions, IT specialists and

librarians, has become the focus and facilitator of the change (Steele & Guha, 1998; Croneis &

Henderson, 2002). Academic libraries in the digital age are facing a number of complex

challenges, including escalating costs of scholarly publications; compliance with copyright laws;

issues of intellectual ownership; and the dramatic changes in the external environment

(Cummings, Witte, Bowen, Lazarus & Ekman, 1992; Towards a New Paradigm, 1995).

Research has confirmed that less help and guidance are given to newcomers to learn about the

newly-created jobs because these positions tend not to be well-defined (West, 1987). Unlike

academic librarians in public service or technical service, who can easily find in-house technical

and emotional support in various forms, digital librarians often find themselves with a lack of

mentors and guidance throughout the orientation process. In addition, digital librarians are often

appointed to play project management roles overseeing various activities such as digital

collections production and development, acquisition decisions, archiving, and technology

innovation. While the professionals working in digital library related areas tend to be young and

are relatively recent graduates (Choi & Rasmussem, 2006), the lack of effective leadership and

peer support from experienced individuals with similar backgrounds and technical skills lead to a

sense of isolation and stress, and further creates difficulties in problem-solving and

decision-making. All these challenges and constant changes add further complexity for a

newcomer digital librarian to cope with during the early stages of employment.

Objectives of the Study

Because of the unique nature of digital librarians’ work, newcomer digital librarians not only have

to socialize into an existing culture of an academic library, but at the same time also invent their

own culture in the digital work environment. In this context, this study examines newcomer

Association of Research Libraries (ARL) digital librarians’ information behaviors and information

needs before, during, and after organizational entry in order to determine how academic libraries

can effectively assist new employees in developing intellectual and technical competencies as

well as knowledge of organizational cultures and social norms. Therefore, this study can be

considered as an information seeking and use study within the context of organizational

socialization.

Drawing on the Sense-Making framework (Dervin & Nilan, 1986) by focusing on the proactive and

user-constructed aspect of newcomer organizational socialization, this study asks one research

question: How does a newcomer digital librarian in academic library make sense of a new work

environment?

Specifically, the study investigates four dimensions of organizational socialization Sense-Making,

including:

situation: organizational situations that lead to needs for socialization information seeking;1.

gap: questions and confusions newcomer digital librarians have in situations in which

information needs arise;

2.

bridge: information seeking tactics that digital librarians use to acquire socialization

information; and

3.

outcome: positive and negative outcomes of socialization information acquisition. 4.

Study Design and Methods

The researchers collected data primarily from in-depth semi-structured Sense-Making

micro-moment time-line interviews with newcomer digital librarians in academic libraries. To

ensure trustworthiness, websites and related human resource documents of each newcomer

digital librarian’s organization will also be collected and reviewed to understand the

organizational and managerial aspects of newcomers’ work environment.

After the Sense-Making micro-moment time-line interview is completed, the researcher will ask

the following questions to collect experiences of critical incidents, such as turning points from an

outsider to an insider, feelings of isolation and alienation, or considering leaving the organization.

The main purpose of asking these questions is to examine a situation of unique interest and

significance (Davey, 1991), which might be independent from the sequential socialization

process.

Due to the limitation of time and resources, this paper only presents the preliminary findings of

the “gap” within the Sense-Making framework.

Preliminary Findings

At this point, only the analysis of “gap” is available. Newcomer digital librarians participated in the

semi-structured interviews have identified several Sense-Making gaps they encountered during

organizational entry. Lists of questions associated with of these gaps are elaborated below:

Career planning:

o Where will I be in librarianship 10 years from now?

o Will I be able to make the director of the library, considering my background as a digital

librarian?

Future of digital librarianship

o Will I still be called a digital librarian in the future?

o What will my job be like in the future?

Purposes of digital initiatives

o Why are digital initiatives and digital collections important?

o Who will benefit from the digital initiatives? Who are the stakeholders in this evolution?

Digital content production flow

o How does our digital content production workflow work?

o Who’s in charge of what in the production process?

o What can we do to make the production process more effective?

Metadata standards

o When do I use the existing standards and when do I create new standards?

o How do I teach my clients to assign metadata for their own collections?

Understanding of clients

o Who are our clients/content providers?

o What are our clients’ needs?

o How much do our clients/content providers know about digital collections?

o Are our clients/content providers able knowledgeable enough to be the subject experts in

the production flow?

Understanding of users

o Who will be using the digital collections?

o What is the online browsing behavior of our users?

Outreach and marketing strategies

o How do we reach the broader audience?

o How do we get content providers interested in digital collections and our services?

Significance of the Study

The current study recognizes the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to rigorous

understanding of digital librarians’ information behaviors and information needs in the workplace

as new employees. This study will make a significant contribution to LIS by providing one of the

first empirical investigations of workplace sense-making and workplace learning of newcomer

librarians. It will make both theoretical and practical contributions to research on administration

of academic librarianship and digital librarianship. In addition, because this study will be the first

study to use Sense-Making to investigate newcomer organizational socialization, there will also

be methodological contributions to studying newcomer information seeking and information use,

and organizational learning.

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