A Phenomenological Study of an Emergent National Digital Library, Part II: The Narratives of Development

Abstract

This article discusses digital library development at the Library of Congress focusing on institutional processes associated with technological innovation in the library context and key transformative event, the completion of the National Digital Library Program (NDLP) (1995-2000). Interviews with seven key participants of the program conducted in 2002 at the Library of Congress (from policy-makers to digital library developers) are interpreted here in terms of loci of control (external/internal) shaping the process of innovation and its institutionalization â the coercive and normative pressures of society, and the professional field of librarianship. The perceptions of individuals are synthesized into a realist narrative in which their voices are still recognizable. Their tales of development show that organizational change driven by external forces and involving individuals who crossed boundaries of organizational fields can be very successful in forcing organizational isomorphism and integration of digitization in the library processes. The accompanying article, Part I, presents theories of social change and organizational rationality, and the social construction of technology (SCOT) as well as the methodological framework for this phenomenological study.