Article in Chronicle of Higher Education on mergers between IT and Libraries

In the January 18th issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education (V.54, Issue 19, page A1), there is an article on how smaller colleges and university libraries are merging with campus information technology departments. Some notes from the article:

• Rarely are there cost savings in such a move
• Culture clashes between librarians and IT staff can occur when the two are merged
• But, such mergers provide unified services to students who focus on electronic resources

While the article states that there is a trend of students not using paper books, I have found at Western State that our print collection is used by student patrons who do come to the library to find print as well as electronic resources provided by the library. We as librarians can do better and we should continue to find ways to streamline our resources and expertise to our patrons in light of the increasing electronic nature of our jobs. We will continue to develop our relationship with the great people of WSC's Computing Services for the benefit of the students, faculty, staff, and general public.