Managing Academic Support Services in Universities: The Convergence Experience

Citation

Sheridan, L. (2007), "Managing Academic Support Services in Universities: The Convergence Experience", Library Management, Vol. 28 No. 4/5, pp. 270-271. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120710744236

“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” Clive Field, Chapter 2.

For an understanding of the issues underlying the decision to converge services, in particular, Library and Computing, and the reality of implementing such a change, this edited text provides a comprehensive summary. The book is divided into 21 short chapters; including 16 case studies on the experiences of specific post secondary institutes in the United Kingdom, with a further 5 chapters offering an overview of convergence in the UK, Australia, Europe and the USA.

The majority of the case studies present scenarios where convergence was deemed successful, with only a few where services converged and then separated, or a decision was made for Library and Computing to remain distinct services but to identify areas for greater cooperation.

For readers interested in change management, the specific case studies also provide useful information on good practice, as well as the pitfalls to avoid when implementing a change that involves a merger of two distinct organisational cultures.

In many of the examples cited, the decision to converge was made at a senior executive level and so the change management issues centre, in most cases, on the difficulties of implementing a decision that has been imposed on rather than initiated by the staff.

While the content is interesting, this is not light reading material. Because each author is offering a synopsis of their experience, there is a great deal of information packed into the 216 pages of this edited book. The structure of the chapters and the provision of an extensive index, however, do enable the reader to “dip in” and select the areas of most interest.

This book would appeal to managers of current Computing and Library services who are interested in investigating the possibility of convergence or any staff involved in the process. It may not have general appeal to staff working in Libraries but is recommended professional reading as it describes a different approach to administrative structure for educational support services.