Copyright 1997 CAUSE. From CAUSE/EFFECT Volume 20, Number 1, Spring 1997, p. 2. Permission to copy or disseminate all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for commercial advantage, the CAUSE copyright and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of CAUSE, the association for managing and using information resources in higher education. To disseminate otherwise, or to republish, requires written permission. For further information, contact Julia Rudy at CAUSE, 4840 Pearl East Circle, Suite 302E, Boulder, CO 80301 USA; 303-939-0308; e-mail: [email protected]
As advances in information technologies move us inexorably into a networked information environment, escalating personnel and organizational issues demand our attention as never before. In fact, many higher education information resources leaders have begun to realize that unless they adapt both themselves and their organizations to deal with rapid change and uncertainty, they will not be able to lead their institutions in developing sound information resources strategies for the future.
This issue of CAUSE/EFFECT includes a number of articles related to these issues, chief among them the "dialogue" between Patricia Battin and Brian Hawkins, excerpted from their popular general session presentation at CAUSE96. Their message focuses on the need for information technologists and librarians to recognize the imperative of working together toward common institutional goals, rather than competing or allowing cultural differences to get in the way of effective collaboration. It is not enough, they say, to be good service providers, or even to become good resource managers. To meet the leadership challenges of the next century, the information professional of the future must work toward becoming an overseer of integrated resources -- a boundary-spanning generalist able to form partnerships to provide information resources direction and leadership.
A critical component of meeting such leadership challenges is not only changing and "growing" one's own skills, but also mentoring the next generation of information resources professionals and leaders. This is a message Battin also shared in her remarks upon accepting the 1996 CAUSE ELITE Award for Exemplary Leadership and Information Technology Excellence. Those remarks also re�ected Battin's strong belief in the importance of diversity in the information resources profession, and the need to create "bold and active programs to identify and search out new talent ... wherever it may reside."
Author Brendan Rapple's viewpoint article about new roles for librarians in a networked information environment also highlights the need for partnerships to develop an electronic community -- especially the need to recognize insularity as a weakness. The article includes commentaries by three leaders in the library community we asked to share their views on this topic.
Last year the CAUSE Board of Directors named "enterprise-wide leadership for information resources" a top strategic issue for the association to address. The challenges described above are fundamental to this issue, as are a number of other signi�cant questions described in Gerry Bernbom's Current Issues article about the Coalition for Networked Information's initiative on Institution-Wide Information Strategies. How does an institution use information, and how does it coordinate its activities and allocate its resources so that the use of information creates value for the institution? Bernbom, who is currently a Visiting Program Of�cer at CNI, suggests more than a dozen areas in which enterprise issues are emerging.
An issue raised by the CAUSE Current Issues Committee related to taking an enterprise-wide approach to managing information resources is organizational structures: do they facilitate or present obstacles to such an approach? How should we restructure our organizations to deliver information and educational services in a networked society? A renowned author and theorist on new organizational forms, Margaret Wheatley believes that life and work are self-organizing and that organizations must be approached as dynamic, living systems. What are the implications of these concepts for college and university leaders and for our organizations into the next century? We asked CAUSE Vice President Richard Katz to pose a few questions along these lines to Wheatley; the result is a set of responses both provocative and entertaining.
Collaboration and partnerships -- both intra-and inter-institutional -- are two key strategies for more effectively managing information resources. As authors Murphy and Williams point out in their article about the Midwestern Higher Education Commission (MHEC), regional cooperation is certainly not a new concept in higher education, but MHEC has had especially notable success in leveraging the technology investments of its members, as well as using communications technologies as a tool for collaboration. This multi-state compact provides an excellent example of inter-institutional cooperation that really makes a difference.
Finally, authors Norris and Olson have provided a "heads up" viewpoint on the importance of readying your campus for the virtual commerce they say will be characteristic of education delivery in the next century. They propose a set of core competencies -- including but not limited to digital cash, smart cards, and online accounts -- that are fundamental to executing electronic commerce, and then provide examples of initiatives that campuses are beginning to explore in preparation for delivering new products and services in the Knowledge Age.
Julia A. Rudy, Editor