Abstract

Despite the strong trend toward distributed computing systems, there has not been extensive research into the effects on organizations as they transition from centralized systems (e.g., mainframe). The proposed dissertation study will attempt to address this by chronicling the organizational change coincident with the implementation of a client/server computing system in an academic library. Two phases of research are planned. The first, exploratory phase, involves a longitudinal, field-based study of a single academic library at a mid-sized university. This paper outlines a plan for this initial phase of research. In the second phase, a comparative study of several academic libraries is planned, based onfindings from the first phase. The author is currently in the early stages of data collection, so no findings are presented.

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