Introduction

Innovation

In today's fast-moving and complex information provision environment, the ability to innovate and deploy change more effectively than competitors is now considered a requisite for survival and success. Innovation is about creating new products, tools, services or processes, bringing forth something which had not been there before, thus allowing people or organizations to scale new heights and accomplish objectives that they were not able to achieve previously. It involves putting into practice new ideas and solutions (Tsai, 2001).

Innovation aids in the creation of sustainable change. Adopting innovations often requires changes in existing ways of performing tasks and so resistance is a normal response. Acceptance of change is crucial if it is to be effectively deployed. An organization should therefore have employees who are both enthusiastic and open to innovation individually so that the introduced change can take root, survive and be sustained in the long run (Janssen, 2000). The increase in changes and developments in the field of information provision has made innovative work behaviours of primary importance to libraries. The concept of change in libraries is not new and affects different aspects of library work, such as organizational structure, service delivery, employment policies, information dissemination and resource scheduling (Stephens and Russell, 2004).

SMS

The mobile phone which took over from landlines has become, over the past ten years, one of the major interfaces used to access and share information. Since their introduction, mobile phone devices have become more versatile, allowing communication between and among individuals via three major services: internet data services, voice calls and SMS (Short Message Service) (International Telecommunications Union, 2012a). The most commonly used data application on mobile phones is SMS or text messaging, sending and receiving messages using mobile phones. Texting or SMS has become so popular as a way of communicating that many have taken to calling today's teens and young adults the ‘generation text’, ‘the texting generation’, or ‘the X and Y generation’ (Lippincott, 2010; Feldman, 2010). The mobile phone SMS service has developed rapidly since its introduction. It is very popular throughout the world, especially amongst the young, as it is cheaper than voice calls, allows for voiceless communication and is very useful when one is in transit and calls are not going through and in noisy environments.