Track Presentations

"Broadening Our Horizons: Technology, Services, Information"
Celebrating 25 Years of Leadership
December 3-6, 1996
San Francisco, California

Tracks

Track 1

Policies and Standards
Policies and standards help create a community within and among our institutions. Policies are governing principles that make our decisions and actions reliable and consistent. Standards are the rules that make our technologies, services, and information resources sharable and interoperable. Our ability to innovate, adapt, and form high-value alliances depends on these values of reliability, consistency, sharing, and interoperability.

Track 2

IT Organizations and Strategic Partnerships
Strategic partnerships and alliances are now a necessity in more information technology situations. Economic pressures, new opportunities, interdependent relationships, and resource leveraging are some of the driving forces that create unique partnership opportunities. IT organizations are in an enviable position to form and participate in new innovative alliances that add value-with customers, new markets, suppliers, competitors, and external constituencies.

Track 3

Customer-Centered Services
Customer focus is a key phrase throughout business and industry, and is increasingly among the highest priorities of colleges and universities. But high-quality customer care may be in competition for limited IT resources with the demands of high-volume customer needs. Many information resources organizations face the challenge of maintaining and even radically improving customer service, during times of double- digit growth in customer need, with flat or declining resources.

Track 4

Distributed Computing & Network Technologies
Network communications has become a cornerstone technology on many of our campuses, the enabling force behind developing new information services and applications. Distributed computing technology remains a critical piece of the puzzle for high degrees of complexity and integration in our information and application environments.

Track 5

Innovations In Technology
The application of new technologies, or established technologies in innovative ways, can enable our institutions to operate more efficiently, help students to learn more effectively, enhance communications on our campuses, and improve the quality of institutional services. At the same time, implementing new technologies can strain existing staff resources, furthering the imbalance between expectations and ability to deliver.

Track 6

The Learning Organization
Key to the success of an information resources organization is the ability to maintain a high degree of commitment and a core of high quality expertise in its professional staff. The rapid pace of change in technology, organizational structure, and institutional priorities demands a constantly expanding level of commitment and expertise. At the same time, new organizational forms such as cross-functional, inter- disciplinary and team-based, add to the necessary professional skill set.

Track 7

Networked Information
Networked information has become the focal point for intellectual connections, service synergy, and organizational alliances among IT, the libraries, media/learning centers, and others in the information professions and industries. The potential of networked information for supporting institutional teaching, learning, scholarship, and research needs is enormous. The realization of information resources as an integration of technology, service, and information is often most clearly illustrated by the delivery of networked information on our campuses.

Track 8

Teaching, Learning, New Media & The Web
New technologies and the innovative learning paradigms that they enable are of high potential value to colleges and universities, offering an opportunity to channel technology investment directly into enhancing the educational processes of our institutions. At the same time, however, they present a range of new management challenges and serve as catalysts in redefining the role of the traditional IT organization.