Managing Academic Support Aervices in Universities: The Convergence

Citation

Rudzioniene, J. (2007), "Managing Academic Support Aervices in Universities: The Convergence", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 63 No. 2, pp. 286-287. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410710737231

Is convergence about people? What are the activities of management academic support services? Could we allow that the interaction between the academic library and study process is terra incognita? Could we claim that convergence of library and academic computing in management academic support services is moving in the right direction in fulfilling common tasks? Many questions.

Invariably, the higher education sector seems to be a core contributor to the generation of a successful and effective future society. No doubt that is one of the reasons why it has attracted so much attention during the last decades, from specialists on an international level as well as specialists in each individual country. Different aspects of the investigation of the subject have taken their place, and one more – the aspect of convergence – is what about this book is about.

The converged management of academic libraries and computer services emerged as a popular model in universities in the late 1980s. Universities identified the need to analyze their information flows and processes and to develop a more sophisticated model of their requirements. It was not the only global driver inspiring an attempt to gain a new quality in academic support services. It became obvious that investment and management of the technical infrastructure is no longer possible with a fragmentation between different services providers that leads to information being hoarded and not shared. So institutions began to understand the imperative for a single technical infrastructure to underpin all information needs, and for a holistic approach to the acquisition, creation, dissemination and preservation of content. So claim the authors, and editor, of the book.

A converged structure today is adopted in over half of the higher education sector in the UK. The commentators recognize that the approach is radical, and there has been little analysis of its nature its role and impact for the information services.

The group of authors representing several universities in UK and other institutions in Continental Europe, the USA, and Australia thoroughly describe their experience in the field. The background of the subject, and the material presented here, is introduced by Terry Hanson, a director of Information Services at University College Chichester, and Chair of LeNSE (Learning Network South East) regional network.

The book starts with a description of the concept of convergence from Clive Field, director of Scholarship and Collections at The British Library: “Convergence is used to describe 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”. At least four axes of this phenomenon could be identified, which are integrated with convergence: library, academic computing services, management and staff. Following the rather traditional structure of the book – which consists of 21 chapters – one can find background in the first two chapters, in which concepts are discussed, circumstances and prerequisites and drivers of convergence are reviewed, concerning areas of IT and library services are identified, models of convergence are presented, the nature and role of the director of information services is described, and a history of convergence in United Kingdom universities is given. Thanks to the comprehensive, varied and practical layout of the case studies contributed by directors of information services from different universities, on convergence, from de‐convergence to convergence and back again, and non‐convergence options, a conclusion can be made: convergence needs to be a part of a strategic process. Convergence is about people: the staff who deliver the new services and the customer who benefit from it. One could hardly argue with that.