Sensemaking a public library's internet policy crisis

Abstract

PurposeUsing Weick's sensemaking theory within a KM framework, and storytelling methodology, this study aims to deconstruct a recent public internet access policy crisis at the newly amalgamated Ottawa Public Library (Canada). As the library's former Manager of Virtual Library Services, the author retrospectively enacts the story of how the library board and management resolved a public controversy led by the staff and the community newspaper. At issue were the library staff's right to be protected from viewing internet pornography, the community's reaction to the issue of protecting children's internet access, and the library's commitment to intellectual freedom online.Design/methodology/approachPlausible meanings are presented, the public library's identity and beliefs are reinterpreted, organizational vocabularies are challenged and tacit and cultural knowledge is created and shared.FindingsIn keeping with a commitment to knowledge creation and use, the library should be actively engaged in multiple tellings of this organizational story by both staff and management. Such tellings, while perhaps not building any new consensus, would contribute to future sensemaking and could aid future strategic planning.Originality/valueApplies Weick's theory, developed in a larger KM framework, and using storytelling methodology, to deconstruct the experience of a recent organizational crisis involving public internet access in a Canadian public library.