Question: Technology development in the workplace: How comfortable do you feel doing the following? Please rate the statements on this scale:
1= not comfortable | 2 = neutral | 3= comfortable | 4= N/A
- Asking for training or assistance with on-the-job technology
- Troubleshooting IT hardware/software issues on library devices or computing equipment
- Advocating for new technology (ex: to be installed/available, incorporated into programming)
- Proposing new projects involving technology (ex: digitization project)
- Making decisions about what technology to purchase
- Developing policies for appropriate use of technology in the library
We know these responses aren’t able to shed light on the why behind these ratings. For example, we don’t know if discomfort proposing new projects is due to the respondent’s lack of ideas, unfamiliarity with specific technology, newness to the profession, or a lack of procedure and process for how to propose these ideas. However, the generally low percentages of ‘comfortable’ responses could suggest that these are areas that could use further support and development in libraries.
Compared to the previous question in our survey, respondents seem more confident in institutional decisions than in providing user support: there were no responses with high percentages of ‘not comfortable.’ These results may reflect the large percentage of respondents who are more established in their careers and may be making more institutional decisions about technology than helping patrons with it. Also, when compared to the previous question, these results have lower percentages of ‘comfortable’ responses. In fact, the results are more evenly spread between the three options, with the final question below being quite close.
It’s also interesting to note that as ‘comfortable’ responses decrease and ‘not comfortable’ increase, the number of N/A responses noticeably increases.
We’ve arranged these results in descending order according to the ‘comfortable’ percentage.
Asking for training or assistance with on-the-job technology:
16% not comfortable
21% neutral
63% comfortable
(Of the 143 total responses to this question, 10 respondents (7%) chose N/A; these were removed from the population prior to the calculations above.)
Troubleshooting IT hardware/software issues on library devices or computing equipment:
15% not comfortable
30% neutral
55% comfortable
(Of the 143 total responses to this question, 7 respondents (5%) chose N/A; these were removed from the population prior to calculations above.)
Advocating for new technology (ex: to be installed/available, incorporated into programming):
15% not comfortable
31% neutral
54% comfortable
(Of the 143 responses to this question, 9 respondents (6%) chose N/A; these were removed from the population prior to the calculation above.)
Proposing new projects involving technology (ex: digitization project):
21% not comfortable
31% neutral
48% comfortable
(Of the 143 responses to this question, 11 respondents (8%) chose N/A; these were removed from the population prior to the calculations above.)
Developing policies for appropriate use of technology in the library:
25% not comfortable
34% neutral
41% comfortable
(Of the 142 responses to this question, 20 respondents (14%) chose N/A; these were removed from the population prior to the calculations above.)
Making decisions about what technology to purchase:
35% not comfortable
32% neutral
33% comfortable
(Of the 142 responses to this question, 24 respondents (17%) chose N/A; these were removed from the population prior to the calculations above.)
