Managing Academic Support Services in Universities: The Converged Experience

Citation

Fourie, I. (2006), "Managing Academic Support Services in Universities: The Converged Experience", The Electronic Library, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 115-116. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470610649344

Clive Field (p. 1) describes convergence as “the situation in which the library and academic computing services, with or without other services, are brought together for managerial purposes under a common full‐time executive director generally recruited from a professional information background”. This means that librarians and information services have been involved in convergence for almost 20 years. The purpose of Managing Academic Support Services in Universities is to share such experiences from diverse situations.

 Under the capable editorship of Terry Hanson, contributions are shared from the UK as well as Australia, USA and Europe. In order to address experiences in convergence in greater detail Hanson involved people who were responsible for implementing and managing converged services. In his own words (p. 3): “And even though the carefully considered arguments of a highly able and experienced director of information services may be blown away in an instant by a new vice‐chancellor, it is nonetheless the detailed observations of these convergence leaders that, I feel, gives us the most useful perspective on the convergence experience”. For him, it is the experience of convergence and not just the initial decision‐making that is of importance. It is then also this experience that features strongly in the contributions.

A total of 16 case studies were commissioned for Managing Academic Support Services in Universities: 12 from converged institutions, two from de‐converged institutions and two from universities that rejected convergence following a thorough examination of it as a possible model for adoption. Among the converged institutions there is a mixture of small and large institutions, as well as older and newer universities.

In the Introductory chapter, Hanson gives a good overview of how convergence in the UK came about, models of convergence, experiences with convergence, the nature and role of the director of information services and his opinion on whether convergence is here to stay. The following chapters deal among other things with the history of convergence in the UK universities, convergence at the University of Wales Aberystwyth, the University of Birmingham, the University of Brighton, the University of Bristol, the University of Hertfordshire, King's College London, the University of Wales, Newport, the University of Strathclyde, Surrey University, Swansea University, Ulster University, Aston University, University of Southampton, Manchester University, and the University of the West of England in Bristol. Three more chapters are included on convergence in Australia, Europe, and the USA.

This hard cover book is well‐bounded with a reasonably good index, and the chapters also read well. Managing Academic Support Services in Universities is highly recommended for anybody who are managing a convergence or who are considering one.