Resources - Book review - The case for convergence. What are the pitfalls and the pay-offs of bringing information and IT departments together? Tracey Caldwell learns the practical lessons of the trailblazers.(Managing Academic Support Services in Universities: The convergence experience)(Book Review)

Convergence is the key theme of Managing Academic Support Services in Universities. Editor Terry Hanson defines convergence as the coming together of library and IT services in academia under a common executive director.

He introduces this collection of convergence experiences and case studies by acknowledging that convergence is not a new phenomenon. His introduction to 20 years of convergence sets out the brief for the 16 case studies in the book.

The case studies cover a range of experiences that are usefully conveyed using a common structure. This allows the different experiences to be compared more easily and facilitates ease of reference for the reader interested in a certain aspect of the introduction or rejection of convergence at an institution.

Most institutions report on their experience of convergence, although Manchester University and Bristol UWE report on how they considered and rejected convergence, and Aston and Southampton describe how they deconverged. This provides a well-rounded range of perspectives on the process, and there are three chapters ...