Critical Engagement: The Merging of Public Health Information Resources

Abstract

As academic libraries and computer centers move toward convergence, multiple issues must be addressed before successful models of merged operations can develop. The organizational model of merged public health information resources at the University of Michigan stands as a viable example of collaborative operations under a unified management stucture. The undertaking represents more than administrative shuffling to consolidate staff and budgets: it is an attempt to reconceptualize the role of library services and computer services within an integrated model of cooperation that can offer more to its costituency than could the library and computing center functioning as separate entities. It is an undertaking that required a belief in the importance of information resources coupled with service and an approach that engages the larger academic mission of the university. The initiative has spawned new collaborative opportunities, resources, and interest, and has reinvigorated a sence of purpose and relevancy for the activities of the information professional.

Citation

Allee, N. and Savage, D.C. (1998), "Critical Engagement: The Merging of Public Health Information Resources", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 84-90. https://doi.org/10.1108/07378839810303442