University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The Management of Automation: A Review of the Proceedings of the Data Processing Clinics

Rubin, Richard E.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1252

Description

Title
The Management of Automation: A Review of the Proceedings of the Data Processing Clinics
Author(s)
Rubin, Richard E.
Issue Date
1988
Keyword(s)
  • Human-computer interaction
  • User interfaces (Computer systems)
Abstract
The topic for this presentation is the Management of Library Automation as viewed through the twenty-five years of data processing clinic proceedings. In a way, it is a disconcerting topic, because it generates ambivalence: have librarians managed automation, or has it managed librarians? The author's experience suggests that the introduction of new technology stimulates in employees either cynicism or a powerful existential angst. Predictably, the managerial pose that is struck when employees express trepidation concerning new technology is that they (the employees) must adapt; that the key to dealing with automation is (the employees') open-mindedness and flexibility; and that it is their (the employees') defects mental, emotional, or physical that threaten the success of automation. It is not surprising, then, that much of the current management literature, including a recent edition of the proceedings (Shaw, 1985), concentrates on why employees fear and resist technology, and how employers might dispel their misgivings.
Publisher
Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Series/Report Name or Number
Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing (25th : 1988)
ISSN
0069-4789
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1252
Copyright and License Information
Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1988.

Owning Collections

1988: Design and evaluation of computer/human interfaces : issues for librarians and information scientists PRIMARY
25th Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing (1988). Edited by Martin A. Siegel.