Stress and Workload Management in Digital Librarianship: An Approach to Identify the Causes and Attainable Solutions
Abstract: Stress is the feeling that we get under pressure, where as stressors are the factors to which we have tendency to respond in our environment. Every individual in the earth has to experience this at any point of his life and Library & Information science professional are not exception to this. Thus no one can avoid stress and pressure in his work and life; hence the greatest way is to manage it so that it can be converted to productivity and potency. This article attempts to outline stress and workload in terms of LIS profession. It tries to focus types of stresses of LIS personnel and their possible reasons. This paper …show more content…
Bunge (1989) in his article ‘stress in the library workplace’ emphasized on having awareness of the important sources of stresses in the library workplace and showed how the stressors affected the library personnel both physiologically and psychologically.
Scheneider (1991) carried out a research on stress and job satisfaction among librarians in which it was discovered that the major issues that bring stress to the employees include poor communication between staff and Management as well as lack of opportunity for staff to lend their views on issues affecting them.
Liz Farler and Judith Broady-Preston (2012) conducted a case study on ‘workplace stress in libraries’ investigating workplace stress in a further education college library service. The authors found that interaction with students can be stressful or enjoyable, depending on context. The need to control noise levels, modify student behaviour and balance the needs of different user groups are cited as stressors.
Promise Ilo (2016) conducted a study on ‘Managing Stress Among Librarians in Selected University Libraries in Ogun State Nigeria’ and found that female librarians reported higher level of job stress than their male counterparts. This study reported that shouldering multiple roles expose women to more stressors than male …show more content…
Technological Stress: The emergence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in libraries is the most important factor that cause stress for LIS professionals. Due to rapid transformation in the ICT based tools and techniques the LIS professionals find it hard to keep pace with the changing digital library environment.
4.2. Job Security Stress: The implementation of modern ICTs and development in LIS infrastructure has forced the LIS professionals to attain new knowledge and skills along with the traditional library functions and services. On the contrary, there is limited scope for them to undergo in service training programme, higher studies, refresher courses etc, which has increased a considerable amount of stress among professionals. Further, with the increasing intrusion and appointment of IT/Computer Science people into the LIS profession have created fear among LIS professionals about their job security in future.
4.3. Physical Stress: The Digital Library Environment has changed the physical structure of the job environment. Due to this sitting in front of computers for a log hour, working in air-conditioned environment etc have also resulted in the physical stress and
Abstract: Stress is the feeling that we get under pressure, where as stressors are the factors to which we have tendency to respond in our environment. Every individual in the earth has to experience this at any point of his life and Library & Information science professional are not exception to this. Thus no one can avoid stress and pressure in his work and life; hence the greatest way is to manage it so that it can be converted to productivity and potency. This article attempts to outline stress and workload in terms of LIS profession. It tries to focus types of stresses of LIS personnel and their possible reasons. This paper …show more content…
Bunge (1989) in his article ‘stress in the library workplace’ emphasized on having awareness of the important sources of stresses in the library workplace and showed how the stressors affected the library personnel both physiologically and psychologically.
Scheneider (1991) carried out a research on stress and job satisfaction among librarians in which it was discovered that the major issues that bring stress to the employees include poor communication between staff and Management as well as lack of opportunity for staff to lend their views on issues affecting them.
Liz Farler and Judith Broady-Preston (2012) conducted a case study on ‘workplace stress in libraries’ investigating workplace stress in a further education college library service. The authors found that interaction with students can be stressful or enjoyable, depending on context. The need to control noise levels, modify student behaviour and balance the needs of different user groups are cited as stressors.
Promise Ilo (2016) conducted a study on ‘Managing Stress Among Librarians in Selected University Libraries in Ogun State Nigeria’ and found that female librarians reported higher level of job stress than their male counterparts. This study reported that shouldering multiple roles expose women to more stressors than male …show more content…
Technological Stress: The emergence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in libraries is the most important factor that cause stress for LIS professionals. Due to rapid transformation in the ICT based tools and techniques the LIS professionals find it hard to keep pace with the changing digital library environment.
4.2. Job Security Stress: The implementation of modern ICTs and development in LIS infrastructure has forced the LIS professionals to attain new knowledge and skills along with the traditional library functions and services. On the contrary, there is limited scope for them to undergo in service training programme, higher studies, refresher courses etc, which has increased a considerable amount of stress among professionals. Further, with the increasing intrusion and appointment of IT/Computer Science people into the LIS profession have created fear among LIS professionals about their job security in future.
4.3. Physical Stress: The Digital Library Environment has changed the physical structure of the job environment. Due to this sitting in front of computers for a log hour, working in air-conditioned environment etc have also resulted in the physical stress and