Karen M. Drabenstott
Associate Professor
School of Information
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1092 USA
Voice: (734) 763-3581
Fax: (734) 764-2475
karen.drabenstott@umich.edu
New topic -- "Convergence and the Library Business"
Many thanks to Paul Gherman for leading our latest discussion on the "Librarian's Role in Teaching and Learning." While the level of discussion was not as high as previous discussions, Paul made a useful introduction to this topic which we hope will serve our membership for exploring this topic on their own and at their own workplaces. Many thanks to Paul for bringing this timely topic to the attention of the CRISTAL-ED membership.
Let's now turn to our new topic on "Convergence and the Library Business." We are fortunate to have two guest editors, Peter G. Underwood and Mary Nassimbeni, for this topic.
Peter G. Underwood (not to be confused with Peter Underwood of Haunted Houses fame!) is professor of librarianship at the University of Cape Town (UCT), having occupied this position since 1992. Formerly he was at the College of Librarianship Wales (CLW), living through its growth and eventual amalgamation with the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Peter is author of Managing Change in Libraries and Information Services: A Systems Approach (Library Association, 1990) and Soft Systems Analysis and the Management of Libraries, Information Services and Resource Centres (Library Association, 1996) and, with R.J. Hartley, of Basics of Data Management for Information Services (Library Association, 1993). He has extensive experience of teaching and consultancy in South Africa and elsewhere. Peter is joining us for a second time as a CRISTAL-ED guest editor.
Mary Nassimbeni, senior lecturer in the School of Librarianship of the University of Cape Town, has taught library and information management studies since 1981. She graduated with a Ph.D. from UCT in 1988. Her research interests focus on the development of the information society and national library and information policy. Mary has numerous publications and has served on a number of national commissions in South Africa dealing with these topics.
Please welcome our co-editors and participate in the discussion on "Convergence and the Library Business."
Peter G. Underwood
Director, School of Librarianship
University of Cape Town
Cape Town
Republic of South Africa
Voice: (national): (021) 650 3090
Private Bag (international): + 27 21 650 3090
Rondebosch 7700 Fax (national): (021) 650 3489
(international): + 27 21 650 3489
Pmail (local): education/pgu
pgu@education.uct.ac.za
Introduction to the topic.
"Convergence" is the key word: closer ties among new professionals in information management, information technology, multimedia, publishing and other related fields offer opportunities and problems in managing a professional career -- but what is actually happening within the workspace?
Mary and I are working in South Africa, a country which shares many characteristics of both "developing" and "developed" world cultures. It offers a rich oral tradition which could be swept away if society perceives that tradition as no longer important for its development. On the other hand, the "new professionals" could assist in making that culture accessible.
South Africa is one of 14 most highly networked countries of the world:
There was a fashion for having a "poet or writer in residence" in libraries and some large businesses:
We hope to engage with you on a debate which will identify strategies and problems.
Peter G. Underwood
Director, School of Librarianship
University of Cape Town
Cape Town
Republic of South Africa
Voice: (national): (021) 650 3090
Private Bag (international): + 27 21 650 3090
Rondebosch 7700 Fax (national): (021) 650 3489
(international): + 27 21 650 3489
Pmail (local): education/pgu
pgu@education.uct.ac.za
The stunned silence which has followed the introduction to this topic has prompted Mary and me to question whether convergence is a myth or simply a fanciful idea of consultants in organizational design. Is there a debate about "deconvergence" already beginning, perhaps?
We thought we would state some of our concerns in a more specific form.
We are especially interested in comparing experiences which arise from the so-called "converged" information environment. The converged environment seems to be characterized, in academic libraries at least, by the appointment of a single directorate to look after the development of library, academic and administrative computing on a campus. What effect does this have on reporting lines within the structure, job specifications and the organizational culture? On a pragmatic note, has convergence made any difference to the selection of places to advertise posts?
Is the convergence debate confined to academic circumstances? Are there examples of parallel information services in the public sector which could also be converged?
Ben Speller
North Carolina Central University
School of Library and Information Sciences
Durham, NC USA
Speller@nccu.edu
The reality of convergence resides at this time in the large academic research environments of the library business; so that may be the reason for the silence. As the reality of the virtual library/information environment emerges, convergence will be an issue for all types of libraries. The convergence issue is already have an impact on curriculum development and faculty development in library schools. So, I am interested in what is being notice relating to the education for library business from the convergence perspective.
Caroline Coughlin
SCILS
Rutgers
coughli@rci.rutgers.edu
Gary Hamel, Harvard Business Review, July-August 1996, talks about convergence as important management strategy in his article, "Strategy as Revolution." When I use it in class, class likes to think about the Borders bookstore cafe concept in libraries as one example of convergence, relating to another of Hamel's principles, achieve joy of use.
Cite:
Hamel, Gary.
Strategy as revolution.(includes related article on nine revolutionary management strategies. Harvard Business Review, V74, N4, July-August, 1996 : 69 (14 pages)
Bob Watson
Executive Director
Franklin Park Public Library District
10311 Grand Avenue
Franklin Park, IL 60131
Voice: (847) 455-6016
bwatson@linc.lib.il.us
I'll offer what may be a radical view, which is that convergence is not only inevitable, but has been occurring for the past century -- it is only now, though, that the technology requires a new tool set by nearly all members of the profession.
Which is to say that we're looking at a "tool set" issue, not a deep intellectual one.
When librarianship bifurcated over the issue of "reference work" at the end of the 19th century, library training programs began separate course work for reference personnel. Since the "pursuit and capture" of the information was critical, reference (and other service personnel) have been increasingly free to pursue whatever tools felt necessary to provide the requested answers (or material).
Technology, beginning perhaps with the telephone, was employed as it became available. Technology was increasingly developed for rapid access to information, with information retrieval "punch cards" exactly paralleling the punch cards once used in data processing.
Reference personnel have thus had no "best practice" barriers to using technology, so it may be that if there is resistance it is primarily due to inertia among some of those who see libraries as "collections" rather than as "services" and see no reason to change their tasks.
(And this may be a valid objection, at least in some archives where the potential for data storage systems to become obsolete before they are useful is a real issue.)
Alida M Dippenaar
Director Library and Information Services
University of the Orange Free State
P.O. Box 301
9300 Bloemfontein
South Africa
Voice: (27) 51 4012227
Fax: (27) 51 4482879
ALIDA@HBIB.UOVS.AC.ZA
At he University of the Orange Free State in South Africa, the following related fields are not part of the university library but are the responsibility of the director of library and information services:
Other possibilities for convergence are the following:
Professor Peter G. Underwood
Director
School of Librarianship
University of Cape Town
Voice (national): (021) 650 3090
Private Bag (international): + 27 21 650 3090
Rondebosch 7700
Fax: (national): (021) 650 3489
Cape Town (international): + 27 21 650 3489
Republic of South Africa
Pmail (local): education/pgu
pgu@education.uct.ac.za
Alida Dippennaar raises an interesting point about convergence: if academic libraries become part of a "total information service," is there any strategic advantage in a library school also joining this cluster in order to take on the role of developing the understanding of information literacy on campus?
At the University of Cape Town, the original "home" for the School of Librarianship was as part of the University Library -- a not uncommon placement in South Africa and for many other library schools. With the increasing specialization and professionalization of education for LIS workers, there was good reason to "decouple" the two activities and many were established as a separate departments. Is there, perhaps, good reason to reconsider that separation?
Robert W. Bauchspies, Jr.
Middleburg, VA
Coordinator@foxcroft.org
A few years back, I remember reading the proceedings of a small conference which had as its focus this very theme:
"Building Partnerships: Computing and Library Professionals: The Proceedings of Library Solutions Institute Number 3, Chicago, Illinois, May 12-14, 1994," edited by Anne G. Lipow and Sheila D. Creth. Berkeley, Calif. (Library Solutions Press, 1995).
As a professional librarian currently involved in network certification training, clearly "convergence" is a term that can be liberally applied to what is taking place not only in various institutions but in academic curriculum where librarianship is concerned. One only need survey the job titles and responsibilities of various announcements in the helpful database provided by the GSLIS (Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Illinois) to get a flavor of current trends.
It would be fair to say that indeed what we are experiencing is somewhat of an evolutionary phenomenon that indeed, as one participant in this forum noted has been going on for several decades. Information technology can be seen as a primary catalyst to what some have noted as a "punctuated equilibrium" form of evolution and change.
For librarians, the task is no less than one which demands competencies in emerging technologies as well one which further hones the craft of librarianship as it has evolved over the decades, and perhaps centuries. The scholar/librarian (i.e., subject specialist) still very much has a place in today's environment but increasingly side by side with system or DB-oriented generalists embodying similar charges in service.
For institutions "convergence" remains a theme which is chiefly economic where issues as wide ranging as access versus ownership or the commodification of information (in increasingly electronic formats) wield their influence. Surely the shifting sands continue.
What I would ask would be, what areas within this "convergence dynamic," be they within the profession or more institutionally oriented, do you see as being potentially marginalized or overlooked in the context of service and mission, and what if anything can be done to lead rather than react to forces which reach well beyond these domains? Bill Gates surely has some input on this, and does Peter Drucker, etc.
Professor Tom Wilson
Head of Department of Information Studies
University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2TN, U.K.
Voice: +44-114-282-5081
Fax: +44-114-278-0300
T.D.Wilson@Sheffield.ac.uk
Peter Underwood notes:
"At the University of Cape Town, the original 'home' for the School of Librarianship was as part of the University Library -- a not uncommon placement in South Africa and for many other library schools. With the increasing specialization and professionalization of education for LIS workers, there was good reason to 'decouple' the two activities and many were established as a separate departments."
and asks
"Is there, perhaps, good reason to reconsider that separation?"
In our experience of being called the "Department of Information Studies" for the past 16 years, I would answer "No." Information problems abound on a university campus and too close a relationship to the library could well limit others' perceptions of what a Department of our kind can do. In making the change from "Postgraduate School of Librarianship and Information Science" 18 years ago, one of the immediate benefits was that the existing identification of the School with libraries and librarianship disappeared and we began to forge links with many other departments in research and teaching, and that continues today.
A little historical perspective is also needed: in the 1960s university libraries began to implement computer-based housekeeping systems. What would have happened if it had been decided that, for that reason, closer relationships between Schools of LIS and libraries were a good idea? Ten years later, with such systems well-established, the Schools could well have been moribund. Note, also, that one of the reasons advanced for the disappearance of so many US library schools was their perceived marginality to the wider affairs of the University -- too tight a relationship to one service unit of the institution is not likely to reduce that perceived marginality.
There is always considerable scope for strong links between the Schools and the university library, but the case in no stronger than the case for linking to, for example, geography and town planning departments because of GIS, or links to chemistry because of IR research on chemical structures, or biotechnology for protein structures, or education for information support to networked learners, or computer science for joint programmes in information systems, or business management for joint programmes, etc., etc. Perceiving the library as the chief focus for a School's activities must be resisted -- it's a big, wide world out there, and information problems are endemic.
Ben Speller
SLIS
North Carolina Central University
Durham, NC USA
Speller@nccu.edu
Library schools need to watch for convergence of disciplinary areas were instruction and research are having a significant impact on library business. To the extent that library schools can build alliances with disciplinary areas in the university that are preparing students and faculties to function in an increasingly electronic environment, the efforts should be magnified. This not only includes the technology but the skills of reading and problem- solving in both conceptual and quantitative frames. Library schools may also find that alliances with other disciplinary areas at the university may be necessary to re-emphasize to students that knowledge in History, Psychology, Philosophy and Science related content areas is necessary to function effectively in a global electronic information environment.
Diane Nahl
Assistant Professor
School of Library and Information Studies
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, HI 96822
Voice: (808) 956-5809
Fax: (808) 956-5835
In 1965 our "school of library studies" was founded as part of the university libraries, then split off into a separate unit, added "information" to its designation in the mid 1970's, and in 1997 has been reorganized in the Department of Information and Computer Science, and retitled, Program in Library and Information Science.
This disciplinary convergence has implications for our curriculum which will evolve over the next decade. In this university, the ICS dept. also staffs many computer lab facilities on campus, so LIS students will expand into these arenas, while continuing to work in traditional library environments.
Besides changing job requirements in libraries, and "new" opportunities in related information arenas for our graduates, the larger question is one of converging cultures--ICS-LIS, how they get together and get along, develop joint goals, and produce hybrid graduates and faculty. Disciplinary convergence often takes years to implement, especially when one area emphasizes service and employment, while the other emphasizes technical skill. LIS and ICS may be two sides of the same coin, but a more useful metaphor might be necessary so that the two sides can meet.
You may join the discussion and look over the list of past and future topics.
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