Paula’s E-Musings

A recent Chronicle of Higher Education article discussed combined Library/IT organizations, with a focus on Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio and the story of Xavier’s experiences bringing the Library and IT departments under one CIO. As it happens I was the library director at Xavier University in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, when the Library and Computing Center, as they were called at that time, reported to different Vice Presidents. Having been at Xavier myself, I was particularly interested in the story of their merger, with its trials, tribulations, and successes.

Such merged organizations have been around for awhile. When I came to SUNY Cortland almost fifteen years ago to establish and lead this type of combined administrative unit, there were other such models in higher education, each with its unique structure and personality. In the late 1990’s SUNY Cortland participated in a research study on the topic which was conducted by Tara Lynn Fulton, then a graduate student at Pennsylvania State University. Her 2001 Ph.D. dissertation, “Integrating Academic Libraries and Computer Centers: A Phenomenological Study of Leader Sensemaking about Organizational Restructuring,” examined the experiences of seven CIOs who had created Information Services units that included libraries and IT departments.

The Chronicle article refers to “at least three dozen colleges” having merged their library and technology departments. The Campus Computing Project, which supports a continuing study of the role of information and technology in higher education, indicates that 11.3% of the 555 colleges and universities responding to their survey have a library that reports to a CIO position. The majority of libraries reporting to a CIO are in private four-year colleges (15.6%), followed by community colleges (13.3%) and public four-year colleges (10.2%). Although several high-profile research universities such as Columbia and Indiana University have merged organizations, only 2.7% of public and 5.9% of private research universities have libraries reporting to a CIO.  

Whatever the organizational structure and whatever it’s called, in order to be successful, IT and Library staff must work well together, providing seamless service to the campus. The focus must be to know what kind of services and resources our students and faculty need and to make them readily and easily available.