INFORMATION WORK STRESS-DOES ANYONE CARE ANYMORE?

James Sweetland, Library Link Regional Convenor - USA

About 1974, the term "burnout" appears to have been used for the first time to refer to a particular set of responses to stress in the workplace. By the end of that decade, the library profession discovered the concept, and a substantial number of papers on the subject appeared throughout the 1980s and early 1990s on the subject.

For the most part, these papers dealt with public services (as opposed to technical services) staff, assumed that the phenomenon existed, and attempted to define the extent and causes of the problem. Although there was some empirical research into the issue, for the most part the literature (and related conference presentations and general discussions) was more descriptive of the problem (while assuming that it was widespread). While there are still discussions of the issue, the extent of new material on the topic had drooped off, and the focus, so far as the library professions is concerned, has shifted on the one hand to "bibliographic instruction" staff (as proposed to general reference staff), and has focused more on stress in general, rather than the burnout as such.

Interestingly, much of the recent work on stress has shifted from the earlier concern with psychological stress into discussions of physical or combined stress, for example, resulting from carpal tunnel syndrome, lack of proper sleep, and the like.

The point? Well, quite simply, in reviewing this literature, and related material, it is clear that the most common reported causes of burnout or undue stress were excessive workload/workplace demands, lack of support/intensity of tasks, and management style/organizational structure. But, the most common solutions were personal-diet, exercise, behavior modification. In other words, the literature shows that the problem is caused by the workplace, but the solution is held to be up to the individual.

Now, consider what has happened in the last few years-notably, the typical library since, say, 1990, had added a large number of electronic sources, probably installed an online catalog (complete with access to other catalogs, and often several union catalogs), and is likely to also have several Internet connections. In other words, the knowledge and skill demands of the public service staff have increased, and the degree of change has also increased (it wasn't that long ago that gopher and veronica were state of the art, or that Mosaic was the only Web browser).

In other words, it appears that the expectations and work load of the typical librarian's job have increased even over what it was in the late 1970s, when burnout became an issue, yet there is little evidence that much has been done to solve it.

In addition to continued suggestions for personal solutions (like "coping behavior" and Transcendental Meditation), about the only new solution may be found in several discussions of the replacement of professional staff with nonprofessional or paraprofessional staff at the public service desk. As of yet, there is no discussion of stress on these staff members.

On first glance, and second glance for that matter, this new "solution" appears merely to assume that, somehow, people with less training are less susceptible to reactions to stress-or perhaps, lacking professional status, they are less likely to be in a position to complain?

Be that as it may, I submit that it is past time when the profession accepts the responsibility for doing something about overwork, especially "intellectual overwork" where the same person is expected to know more, have more skills, and deal with more variety and change, without any reduction of existing expectations. It is past the time to insist that the stress is the fault of the worker, and to demand that the management do something besides phony "job enrichment".

How do you react to this paper? Do you have any ideas on reducing stress? Should the solution be up to the individual to cope with stress, or the institution to reduce the stress? Is there another solution? Do you feel this is a problem at all?

SUGGESTED READING

Blazek, R. and Parrish, D. A. "Burnout and public services: The periodical literature of librarianship in the eighties." RQ 31 no 1 (Fall 1992): 48-59.
Caputo, Janet. Stress and Burnout in Library Service. Phoenix, Arizona: Oryx Press, 1991.
Fisher, David P. "Are librarians burning out?" Journal of Librarianship 22 (Oct., 1990): 216-235. (1974; 1961 earliest; early are problem librarians)
Massey-Burzio, Virginia. "Reference encounters of a different kind: a symposium." Journal of Academic Librarianship 18 no. 5 (1992): 276-286.
Shaw, Craig S. "A scientific solution to librarian burnout." New Library World 93 no. 5 (1992): 10307-4803.

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