The article presents the results of the author's analysis of the practices of informatization of social work on the example of the Republic of Karelia. The relevance of the topic is determined by the increased attention of the state to the processes of digitalization and the objective need for informatization of most spheres of public life, especially in the pandemic and post-pandemic periods. The social problem of the study consists of organizational and technical contradictions that complicate the process of informatization of social work. Information technologies and electronic document management, introduced into the practice of social work, currently represent an additional burden for specialists due to the preservation of parallel paper document management. The software and information resources used in the system of social institutions themselves are not always perfect and easy to use by ordinary social work specialists and social workers. The scientific problem is that despite the rapid development of information technologies, the scientific literature pays unjustifiably little attention to the process of informatization of social work. The presented scientific papers contain mainly a theoretical analysis of this problem and do not refer to empirical research. No similar studies have been conducted in Karelia before. Research methods: analysis of documents and scientific literature; semi-structured interview; questionnaire. As a result of the research, the characteristic of information technologies is given, which are most often used in the practice of social work, the problems of using and opportunities for improving information technologies in social work are identified. We come to the conclusion that at the present stage, the main goal of introducing information technologies into the practice of social work (optimization and simplification of the activities of social institutions, increasing the availability of social services for citizens) has not been achieved. Only systematic work with the groups of factors identified by the author will achieve this goal.
The article presents the results of the author's analysis of the practices of informatization of social work on the example of the Republic of Karelia. The relevance of the topic is determined by the increased attention of the state to the processes of digitalization and the objective need for informatization of most spheres of public life, especially in the pandemic and post-pandemic periods. The social problem of the study consists of organizational and technical contradictions that complicate the process of informatization of social work. Information technologies and electronic document management, introduced into the practice of social work, currently represent an additional burden for specialists due to the preservation of parallel paper document management. The software and information resources used in the system of social institutions themselves are not always perfect and easy to use by ordinary social work specialists and social workers. The scientific problem is that despite the rapid development of information technologies, the scientific literature pays unjustifiably little attention to the process of informatization of social work. The presented scientific papers contain mainly a theoretical analysis of this problem and do not refer to empirical research. No similar studies have been conducted in Karelia before. Research methods: analysis of documents and scientific literature; semi-structured interview; questionnaire. As a result of the research, the characteristic of information technologies is given, which are most often used in the practice of social work, the problems of using and opportunities for improving information technologies in social work are identified. We come to the conclusion that at the present stage, the main goal of introducing information technologies into the practice of social work (optimization and simplification of the activities of social institutions, increasing the availability of social services for citizens) has not been achieved. Only systematic work with the groups of factors identified by the author will achieve this goal.
The author expresses gratitude to Roman Sergeevich Metla, a graduate of Petrozavodsk State University, who helped to collect empirical data in the framework of the study.