Technostress and the reference librarian

Reference Services Review

Volumn 20, Issue 2, 1992, Pages 7-50

  Kupersmith, John ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 37949047728     PISSN: 00907324     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/eb049150     Document Type: Review

References (27)

1. Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Ode Inscribed to W.H. Channing,” quoted in John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, ed. by Emily Morrison Beck, 15th ed. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1980).
2. Craig Brod, Technostress: The Human Cost of the Computer Revolution. (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1984), 16.
3. Several extensive reviews and discussions of technostress studies are contained in Amarjit S. Sethi, Denis H.J. Caro, and Randall S. Schuler, eds., Strategic Management of Technostress in an Information Society. (Lewiston, NY and Toronto: C.J. Hogrefe, Inc., 1987).
4. Julie Bichteler, “Technostress in Libraries: Causes, Effects, and Solutions,” The Electronic Library 5 (October 1987): 282-87 and “Human Aspects of High Tech in Special Libraries,” Special Libraries 77 (Summer 1986): 121-28; Sandra Champion, “Technostress: Technology's Toll,” School Library Journal 35 (November 1988): 48-51; Linda 5. Dobb, “Technostress: Surviving a Database Crash,” Reference Services Review 18, no. 4 (Winter 1990): 65-68, 48; MaryEllen Sievert, et al., “Investigating Computer Anxiety in an Academic Library,” Information Technology and Libraries 7 (September 1988): 243-52.
5. Sara F. Fine, “Technological Innovation, Diffusion, and Resistance: An Historical Perspective,” Journal of Library Administration 7 (Spring 1986): 83-108 and “Human Factors and Human Consequences: Opening Commentary,” in Allen Kent and Thomas J. Galvin, eds., Information Technology: Critical Choices for Library Decision-Makers. (New York: Marcel Dekker, 1982), 209-24; Michael J. Malinconico, “Hearing the Resistance, “Library Journal 108 (15January 1983): 111-13 and “Listening to the Resistance,” Library Journal 108 (15 February 1983): 353-55; Wilson Luguire, “Attitudes Toward Automation/Innovation in Academic Libraries,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 8 (January 1983): 344-51; Walter Giesbrecht and Roberta McCarthy, “Staff Resistance to Library CD-ROM Services,” CD-ROM Professional 4 (May 1991): 34-38.
6. Brod, 16.
7. Carol R. Glass and Luanne A. Knight, “Cognitive Factors in Computer Anxiety,” Cognitive Therapy and Research 12 (1988): 351-66.
8. Philip M. Turner, Neal K. Kaske, and Gayle S. Baker, “The Effects of Baud Rate, Performance Anxiety, and Experience on Online Bibliographic Searches,” Information Technology and Libraries 9 (March 1990): 34-42.
9. Richard Saul Wurman, Information Anxiety. (New York: Doubleday, 1989), 34.
10. Wurman, 317.
11. Alan Ritch, “Back to the Future: Desk Set or Desklessness?” Reference Services Review 19, no. 1 (Spring 1991): 74-76.
12. Brian Nielsen, “CompuServe Information Manager: A Mediator on a Floppy,” Online 15 (July 1991): 92-94. Nielsen's earlier commentaries on librarian roles stand up well after ten years: “Online Bibliographic Searching and the Deprofessionalization of Librarianship,” Online Review 4 (1980): 215-24 and “Teacher or Intermediary: Alternative Professional Models in the Information Age,” College & Research Libraries 43 (May 1982): 183-91.
13. Diane R. Callahan, “The Librarian as Change Agent in the Diffusion of Technological Innovation,” The Electronic Library 9 (February 1991): 13-15.
14. Ayala Pines and Christina Maslach, “Characteristics of Staff Burnout in Mental Health Settings,” Hospital and Community Psychiatry 29 (April 1978): 233, quoted in David S. Ferriero and Kathleen A. Powers, “Burnout at the Reference Desk,” RQ 21 (Spring 1982): 274-79.
15. Janette S. Caputo, Stress and Burnout in Library Service. (Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1991), 30. For another perspective, see the drawings made by apparent burnout victims and reproduced in Mary Haack, John W. Jones, and Tina Roose, “Occupational Burnout Among Librarians,” Drexel Library Quarterly 20 (Spring 1984): 46-72.
16. For a critical review, see David P. Fisher, “Are Librarians Burning Out?” Journal of Librarianship 22 (October 1990): 216-35.
17. The literature on stress management is vast, but a good starting point is Caputo's discussion, on pages 107-31.
18. This satisfies a long-standing desire on the author's part to tell the entire library profession to take its vitamins. Those looking for a more substantive treatment are referred to the section on “Strategic Individual Choices for Technostress Management” in Sethi, et al., Strategic Management of Technostress in an Information Society, 229-356. This contains chapters on nutrition, fitness, yoga, “contemplative strategies” (i.e., meditation), biofeedback, and sleep.
19. For a popular treatment of cognitive techniques, see David D. Burns, M.D., Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. (New York: William Morrow, 1980).
20. Many of the examples that follow are from The University of Texas at Austin, not necessarily from any claim to uniqueness or distinction, but mainly because they are well known to the author.
21. The Prototype Information Workstation is a Macintosh IIsi with 5MB RAM and an 80MB hard disk, a CD-ROM player, a 2400-baud modem, and direct connections to the library's AppleTalk LAN, the university's administrative computer network, and the Internet. Word-processing, graphics, file conversion, and bibliographic database software are provided for processing of retrieved information.
22. Harold Billings, “Library Committees and Innovation Teams,” The Library Bulletin [Austin, TX: The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin] 20 (5 July 1991): 1.
23. Turner, Kaske, and Baker, 41.
24. For a thorough discussion of this and related issues, see Cecilia D. Stafford and William M. Serban, “Core Competencies: Recruiting, Training, and Evaluating in the Automated Reference Environment,” in Personnel Administration in an Automated Environment, ed. by Philip E. Leinbach, Journal of Library Administration 13 (1990): 81-97.
25. Roy Tennant, “RE: technostress,” BITNET message posted on PACS-L listserver, 4 February 1991.
26. Paul Heckel, The Elements of Friendly Software Design. (New York: Warner Books, 1984), 17.
27. “Announcing a New, User-Requested SET Command,” DIALOG Chronolog 19 (July 1991): 274-77.