A Phenomenological Study of an Emergent National Digital Library, Part II: The Narratives of Development1

Institutional processes associated with technological innovation in the library context and the key transformative event, the completion of the National Digital Library Program (NDLP) at the Library of Congress (1995–2000), are discussed in this article and the accompanying article,Part I. Interview...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Library quarterly (Chicago) 2005-10, Vol.75 (4), p.e28-e70
Main Author: Dalbello, Marija
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Collection development
Digital libraries
Digitization
Electronic Article
Librarians
Librarianship
Libraries
Library collections
Social groups
Technological innovation
Technology
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Institutional processes associated with technological innovation in the library context and the key transformative event, the completion of the National Digital Library Program (NDLP) at the Library of Congress (1995–2000), are discussed in this article and the accompanying article,Part I. Interviews with seven key participants of the program conducted in 2002 at the Library of Congress (with policy makers and digital library developers) are interpreted here in terms of loci of control (external/internal) shaping the process of innovation and its institutionalization—the coercive and normative pressures of society, and the professional field of librarianship. Their perceptions are synthesized into a realist narrative in which their voices are still recognizable. Their tales of development show that organizational change driven by external forces and involving individuals who crossed boundaries of organizational fields can be very successful in forcing organizational isomorphism and integration of digitization in the library processes. The accompanying article,Part I, presents theories of social change and organizational rationality, and the social construction of technology (SCOT) as well as the methodological framework for this phenomenological study.
ISSN:0024-2519
1549-652X
DOI:10.1086/502791