Books, bytes and bridges: libraries and computer centers in academic 
institutions / Larry Hardesty (editor). – Chicago and London: American Library 
Association, 2000. – 220p. – 0-8389-0771-7: £40.50.

The convergence of libraries and computer services has been an important issue in 
higher education institutions (HEIs) for over a decade. It is then surprising that this is 
(as far as I know) the first full-scale book devoted to the subject. As such it is a 
welcome addition to the literature. The book consists of a number of short papers by 
different authors which together provide a very useful overview of the issues 
associated with collaboration and merger of the different ‘information services’. The 
contributors are all practitioners (librarians and IT professionals) with personal 
experience of merged services. They come from a variety of HEIs (large and small, 
research-oriented and teaching-focused) and their collective experience is worth 
sharing.

The book opens with some informative essays covering the background. These 
include a useful review of the US literature on the subject. The main body of the book 
consists of general discussions and case studies. There are interesting discussions on 
some of the key themes associated with the merger issue, including the role of the 
Chief Information Officer (merged-service manager), the drivers for change (top-
down and bottom-up), and cultural issues.

Between them the contributions illustrate a number of models of ‘merger’ (a term 
used by virtually all of the authors). What is missing is a systematic discussion of 
what ‘merger’ actually means. Although this is of course implicit through much of the 
book, there is no explicit discussion of this which compares different models. The 
nearest we get are two essays based on data collected from interviews of staff from a 
number of HEIs. But many of the other contributions do not acknowledge that there is 
a wide spectrum of options open to institutions and seem to portray the choice simply 
as ‘to merge or not to merge’. The UK term used in this area, ‘convergence’, may be 
helpful here in providing a different perspective. ‘Convergence’ is used to describe a 
broad set of possibilities ranging at one end from ‘formal convergence’ (bringing the 
organisations together at various levels) to ‘informal convergence’ (planned 
collaboration) at the other. Between these two extremes are a whole range of options. 
There are many options for HEIs, but ‘opt out’ is not one of them. In today’s 
information environment, the key question on convergence is not ‘whether’ but 
‘how?’.

From this point of view the case study approach is useful. It is always interesting to 
see how others have done it. Some of the contributions include organisational 
structure charts which are fascinating. But there are probably too many of these types 
of essays and after reading a few, the next ones do not seem to add very much to 
cumulative picture. All too often they seem to be ‘at our college we did it like this’ 
and ‘at our university we did it like that’. This becomes rather repetitive. It is perhaps 
inevitable in a book with multiple contributors that there is a certain amount of 
repetition between the chapters but there is, however, rather too much of it here – 
perhaps evidence of too light an editorial touch. Many of the papers seem to follow 
the formula of describing the institution, rehearsing the historical developments which 
have meant that convergence has been seen as a way forward, discussing how the 
change was managed and giving an overview of key issues. There is often too much 
narrative and not enough analysis.

As well as a case study section, I would like to have seen a more thematic one. Some 
of the key issues associated with convergence might in this way have been dealt with 
more thoroughly. Examples of key themes might have included: setting up and 
managing merged help desks, marketing and publications, staff training, professional 
cultures, finance, creating Virtual Learning Environments, proactive learning and 
research support and authentication management. These issues are dealt with by some 
of the authors but normally only superficially as part of an overview of individual 
institutions.

The ‘academic institutions’ in the subtitle are entirely US institutions. This is a missed 
opportunity. Many other countries have interesting stories to tell. In the UK and 
Australia, for instance, there are many examples of convergence. As well as 
interesting experiences within different countries, there are issues of comparison 
between different countries. In the US, UK and Australia, convergence of some kind 
seems to be common, but in some continental European countries it is still rare. Why? 
This question still needs answering.

As this is the first book on this important subject, perhaps my expectations of it were 
too high. One book can only do so much. This book certainly makes a worthwhile 
contribution to the professional literature. It will be useful to practitioners in 
particular. However, it has illustrated that there is a lot more to be said on this issue.

Stephen Pinfield
Academic Services Librarian, University of Nottingham