This article was published in CAUSE/EFFECT journal, Volume 22 Number 4 1999. The copyright is by the author. See http://www.educause.edu/copyright for additional copyright information.
Recommended Reading
Innovative Use of Information Technology by Colleges
Council on Library and Information Resources, 1999, $20.00, 87 pages
ISBN 1-887334-70-XReviewed by Paula Kaufman
Colleges today are challenged on the one hand by faculty and students who expect and demand the very latest robust technologies at their fingertips (along with instruction and support where and when needed) and on the other by emerging pressures of effectiveness and competitiveness. Recognizing that these forces will cause change through entire institutions, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) studied college campuses that provide innovative and interesting models of information technology and library services.
The nine case studies presented in this slim volume (whose size is inversely related to its importance) present an interesting range of activities, ideas, and accomplishments that provide much food for thought. Separately, each case study is a useful example of how strong alliances among faculty, library staff, and information technology staff create good environments for teaching and learning. As a whole, the case studies challenge ideas about traditional organizational structures and environments, reflect changes taking place elsewhere, and push the edges of the boxes into which many traditional organizations are often seemingly locked.
If this volume had contained only these case studies and the discussions about them that ensued when CLIR organized a meeting in March 1999 to discuss organizational environments most conducive to change, it could be considered to have made an important contribution to current thinking about such matters. However, the introductory material--which contains essays by Susan Jurow on the importance of the process of change, Susan Hill on strategies for successful change, and Brian Hawkins, who offers a �dozen thoughts to stir the pot�--makes this volume extraordinary. Prefaced by these challenging pieces, the case studies and the recommendations that ensued from the subsequent CLIR-sponsored discussions comprise a volume that should be on the reading list of every higher education administrator as well as everyone who uses or delivers information or information technology.
Paula Kaufman ([email protected]) is dean of libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Renewing Administration Preparing Colleges and Universities for the 21st Century
Diana G. Oblinger and Richard N. Katz, Editors
Anker Publishing, 1999, $35.95, 330 pages
ISBN 1-882982-27-4Reviewed by John Chaney
Whether it be in administrative services, medicine, administrative computing, or law, there comes along a book now and then that really grabs your attention. Why? Perhaps because new ground is broken or it agrees with your own philosophy, thinking, and beliefs. Such is the case with Renewing Administration and my enthusiastic recommendation that faculty, academic administrators, executive management, and information technologists study the authors� description of the use of technology to improve efficiency, reduce the cost of administration, and enhance the learning experience.
Information systems have not been seen as strategic tools, and little has been written about administrative computing and its role in supporting policy decisions, economic and strategic directions of the institution, and academic officers to embrace technology to help improve services to students, faculty, researchers, administrators, parents, and alumni.
In Chapter 14 Katz and Oblinger conclude: �The leaders of this enterprise, who are represented in this volume, have been quick to identify theirs as a transformation mission and to adapt changing technology and a changing workforce to the goals of enhanced service, productivity, and accountability.� They also conclude that �the learning revolution is now under way and is creating the opportunity for faculty to join their administrative colleagues in a collaborative discussion about renewing the higher education enterprise.�
Institutions must learn to drive system design from the executive academic and managerial level, overcome tendencies to have new systems do business the old way, and change policies that deny effective use of information systems and technology. The contributors to this volume clearly describe a shift to a service-oriented culture and the use of information technology that supports policy, strategic, and economic objectives.
The renewal of these institutions embraces a transformation of administrative services and a move away from administrative computing that only automates systems that have a huge number of transactions. Hawkins, in his foreword to the volume, correctly points out that �today, there is an important and radically increased level of interaction between technology, organizational structures, business functions, and the demands of our customers.�
Those who care about the transformation of administrative services and the tools that help make it possible will benefit from this book for the insight of others who have gone about this task and the way they have used technology to enable the process.
John F. Chaney�s ([email protected]) career in administrative information systems in higher education spanned more than 30 years, from the University of Oklahoma to the University of Illinois to the University of Colorado. He was a founder of CAUSE.