RFID på Kvarntuna stadsbibliotek
Teknikskifte som möjlighet till förändrat arbetssätt?
This two years master's thesis in Library and Information science, examines how the implementation of new technical equipment can affect how staff in public libraries organize their work and activities in the library. One Swedish public library in specific is the subject of research in this thesis, which has been anonymized as Kvarntuna city library. The study takes place in the beginning of the implementation of RFID-technology in the library. RFID, which stands for Radio Frequency Identification, is supposed to make the handling with different types of media in the library more efficient and in connection with the implementation one wants to reorganize work and activities in the library to make it even more efficient and also create a modern library.The thesis' method is qualitative interviews with six members of the staff. The theoretical framework of the thesis is a sociocultural perspective, especially inspiered by Roger Säljö, a Swedish professor in pedagogical psychology. The sociocultural perspective emphasizes physical and intellectual tools as important components in everything people do, for example when learning, thinking, taking action and interacting with others in different contexts. Tools has an medieting effect. The thesis' result and analysis is presented thematically in different levels of contexts: the mental context, the physical context, the communicative context and the historical context.The sociocultural perspective makes it possible to understand the implementation of RFID in itself, rather than the actual technology, as a tool that is used to change the way work is organized in the library. It can also be seen as a screen through which it is possible for the interviewed staff to think and reflect how a different way of organizing the work would be. Some statements indicate that it is difficult to see what could change in the way the work is organized when implementing RFID, and all of the interviewed persons make some kind of statement that they know little about what a different way of organizing the work is or that it is too early in the implementation to tell or know something about that. However, what was expressed in the interviews indicates that the implementation is a tool in the making and the implementation itself can be seen as the reorganized way of work or a start of it. This is since tools has an developing effect on both actions, thoughts and organizations. Therefore we can see a discrepancy between what the interviewed persons first said, and what they later expressed. Finally, from a sociocultural point of view one can see that people have a big opportunity to control tools, in libraries too, and use them according to their purposes. Technology is therefore not a threat to libraries' existence, but can rather be seen as an opportunity to develop the organization.