Christine Dugdale gives an overview of EUNIS '99: the 5th European University Information Systems Organization Conference which was held in Espoo, Finland, 7-9 June 1999.
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The fifth EUNIS conference took as its theme, 'Information Technology Shaping European Universities'. There were 170 delegates from 30 different countries - most of them European countries, but a disappointing number of librarians. Most speakers that I heard addressed issues surrounding University-wide administration systems. One speaker, admittedly, did say that information strategy might be seen as an administrative process, but that it is important for teaching and learning too! |
Indeed, the word "library" was only uttered once during the entire first day during the sessions that I attended (and there was no mention of "librarians" or "information centres" or "learning centres" at all). This may have been the result of my selection of individual sessions, but it seemed to be very much the trend of the conference.
The picture did change somewhat on the second day, but one did wonder how so many speakers could emphasise the importance for integration and co-operation between internal university information systems without considering library management systems at all. There were only three presentations about library systems/services in total. Indeed, I was left wondering if IT managers did understand library management systems or their purposes when it was suggested that an integrated information system (presumably run by IT personnel) and those controlling it could move behind the scenes leaving all end-user support to those "who are best at it" - namely librarians. I assumed that the thinking behind this embraced a genuine admiration for librarians' skills in supporting end-users, but also a vague belief that future IT information systems would lead to virtual libraries without books. Consequently, librarians would become redundant as libraries became merely physical spaces in which students could meet and exchange ideas - like academic coffee shops!
Interestingly, many speakers outlined the frustrations and difficulties they constantly experienced in persuading policy makers to understand and adopt their ideas and to integrate systems without feeling any apparent need to understand libraries and their systems. Clearly, many appeared to believe that IT was the complete answer to students' future information needs without any clear understanding of an electronic and print 'hybrid' library future. I was left with the impression that libraries might long be destined to remain support services rather than key players in helping to shape their institutions' teaching and learning strategies unless they began to take a much more pro-active role themselves.
JISC and the eLib Programme, however, did achieve several mentions later in the conference. I was, however, surprised that there were so few references to the Telematics Programme at a European Conference which stressed European co-operation and IT.
I had also hoped to learn a great deal more about Finland's different library systems as I had understood that they have some impressive electronic libraries with their own equivalent of a more highly funded eLib programme that is concerned with subject gateways, OPACs and a number of various hybrid library issues. I had also understood that they were much more integrated in terms of access to wider communities so that, for example, every public library in Helsinki has several free Internet-access PCs. I did not have the opportunity to check this out during the conference, however, although I did manage to see the Helsinki University of Technology Library which was very impressive - particularly since it has grown to its present position and level of service from a pile of rubble following extensive damage in 1939 and 1944 from Soviet bombs. These more or less destroyed the University of Technology and most of its books. An interesting exhibition and photographic display charted its development from the bomb damage to the facilities in the new building with such 'highlights' as the first self-service copying machine in 1970 - always a reminder just how far technology has advanced in so short a period!
What impressed me most, however, was a number of less high-tech facilities such as the large lobby-sitting area with its newspapers and easy chairs and tables and, especially, the area equipped with a round table for the library clients' children (something that many of our academic libraries need with the growth in part-time and mature student numbers). It is possible, however, that the 20 year old 'client' sitting alone at this table in the picture might have been less than pleased had he understood the translated caption, "Complete with Donald Duck to delight children of all ages!"
Certainly, the population seemed to be very much into technology as far as mobile phones are concerned. When the Director of the University told us that 60% of the population had mobile phones I was staggered to learn that he meant that 60% owned them rather than were permanently speaking into them! I often felt I was the only person walking down a street or sitting on a bus who did not feel an overwhelming need to ring someone up and inform them of the fact! Sharing a taxi back to the airport I found that I was sitting silently whilst my fellow passenger was giving a friend a description of the journey and the driver was simultaneously using both his car radio and personal phone whilst driving! All this information, however, is no guarantee against mis-information as I found to my cost when, carefully following the hotel's instructions to bring up the EuroNews channel on my TV, I strayed into a porn channel!
Like all EUNIS conferences, the fifth one aimed to bring together all those involved with information technology in education - managers, staff, researchers, administrators and users of information technology services in HE and scientific research institutions to discuss evolving issues and applications of information technology in the academic world. And this fifth EUNIS conference did seem to achieve this general aim.
 Figure 1: Helsinki University of Technology |
It was organised by and took place on the campus of the Helsinki University of Technology. This is located in the city of Espoo which is only 9 kilometres west of the centre of Helsinki. The campus merges with nature in a way that one would think impossible for any city let alone one so close to a country's largest city. The site had a generous supply of trees and, of course, a closeness to the sea that is almost impossible to avoid near Helsinki. It was a truly beautiful setting for a conference. |
The same, however, could not be said of the weather which seemed to fluctuate violently between hot sun and very cold winds, not to mention thunder storms and downpours! We were able to enjoy all this variety on the evening cruise to the island fortress of Suomenlinna. We had been warned that Finland was experiencing an exceptionally cold spring (Helsinki is on the same latitude as the tip of Greenland), but had not been warned about the heavy rain or the fact that days of extreme cold were punctuated with moments of very hot sun!! It would have taken a nature more generous than mine to rejoice with our guide who was so happy that it was raining and she did not have to water her plants after 4 weeks of dry weather!
It was a very well organised conference with excellent housekeeping arrangements - particularly in respect of preparation rooms for speakers. I was very impressed with the chairs' determination to start and finish every session on time, simply cutting off verbose speakers and allowing no questions. Unfortunately, however, it was organised around parallel sessions which meant that I was not able to go to hear all the papers that I would have chosen to hear. I also felt that the very large lecture theatres equipped with screens sufficiently large to map all the world's airways must have been more than a little daunting for some speakers.
The three keynote speakers all presented very interesting thought-provoking papers, but I did wonder why an essentially European conference was being addressed by two American speakers. Their papers were both highly informative and entertaining, but addressed largely American University issues - particularly those revolving around funding models. Obviously, competition and the pressures of finance are important to us all and their discussion of funding models was in the context of competing educational programmes provided, for example, via the InterNet. Again, these are issues which effect us all. The specific details, however, were not directly related to situations faced by European universities who are recipients of state funds.
The keynote speakers did, however, raise a number of important issues that were addressed throughout the conference by other speakers. As always, the rapid growth in technology was stressed. It was pointed out, by a later speaker, that technological changes have been so rapid as to even leave linguistic problems in their wake in Finland where there is, apparently, no word to describe "information literacy" at all and only one word to describe "data", "information" and "knowledge". This led, inevitably, to the oft aired thoughts about whether such rapid advances mean that humans might not be ready for the changes they would bring to their life and work styles. Like most speakers, the keynote speakers emphasised the changing educational scene and, particularly, competition in education with virtual universities leading to non-traditional competition that will become an increasing challenge to established colleges and universities. In order to meet this challenge we all need to change our thinking; becoming more adaptable and more willing to create new alliances. It was often stressed that EUNIS was itself built on collaboration and could become a chrysalis for change. One of the keynote speakers, for example, spoke of "coopetition" as a symbol of change and new thinking. This encompassed the idea that, in the future, we will need to co-operate in some areas as well as compete in others with institutions that we currently see as our competitors.
The keynote speakers were Jorma Routti, Director General of DG XII, EU who gave a paper entitled, EU Research and Education Programmes, Impacts on European Universities, Richard N Katz, President of EDUCAUSE who gave a paper entitled, Dancing with the Devil: Information Technology and the New Competition in HE, and Michael R Zastrocky, Research Director/Academic Strategies, Gartner Group who presented a paper entitled, The Information-and Technology-Enabled University of 2004.
The proposed conference themes were quite wide-ranging and centred around: Enhancing Learning Through Technology, Changes and Challenges in Staff Development and Training, The Role of Information Technology in Universities, The New Library role with Evolving Technologies, Security, Co-operation Within and Between Universities, Distributed Computing and Network Technology and Bridging Theory and Practice. In the event, there was a heavy concentration upon information strategies and how they are designed and implemented (or not).
The key issues that emerged over and over again in most papers were the ideas surrounding integration, collaboration, developing technology and information strategies within individual institutions, national programmes and international groupings. The need for integration and collaboration was repeatedly stressed and many speakers highlighted the need for an integrated approach within and between individual institutions nationally and globally. It was interesting to note that whether a paper was about a national system, a very local system, a university-wide administrative system or a library system, the same issues arose. There was the same emphasis on the need for integration and co-operation and the same emphasis upon the need to explain systems, to overcome cultural barriers, to "convert" managers and other personnel to their advantages and to overcome any fears about "threats" to traditional ways of working. Whatever the declared intent for introducing a new system, it appeared that most were actually designed to address the two (possibly conflicting issues) of improving quality whilst decreasing costs.
Many speakers came back to the same point, albeit in different guises, that the technology already exists to underpin most uses and the needs of most users, but that the will to implement that technology along with the acceptance of any new system might not exist. Implementing an information strategy is often a political process. The same problems were constantly outlined by many speakers - the lack of money, possibly the lack of networks, but always the lack of communications and collaboration. One speaker discussed the failure to make any significant headway with one system because managers were pessimistic, harassed as they were by financial shortcomings and concerns about organisation change. Indeed, one of the keynote speakers suggested that trying to introduce a new information strategy was like running into a jelly mountain. It was possible to make an initial impression upon colleagues and managers, but, after a while, the organisational structure re-formed into its earlier shape. It was, therefore, essential to change the thinking of managers and leaders.
It was also stressed that there is a growing need for accountability in universities world-wide. This might result in a reluctance to implement new information systems since it means that there is a corresponding need to be seen to be effective in spending on IT.
Despite this gloom, however, it was refreshing to hear about information systems that have actually been developed and not just about theories and ideas that are so often a feature of conferences such as these. It was also very encouraging to hear such a large number of speakers who were so enthusiastic about the need to implement new information systems despite the problems and discouragement that they felt that they had received in attempting to do so. A number of speakers stressed the importance of preparing information strategies - even where they were convinced that no-one would actually implement them - because it was very important to raise debates and encourage thinking about such strategies within institutions. A significant number of papers about existing systems often provided a graphic picture of ad hoc developments that had not been co-ordinated in the past. There is an obvious need for information strategies if we are to develop a more dynamic, cost-effective integrated approach in the future. It was, however, also stressed that technology often changes in ways that take us by surprise and that any information strategy should, therefore, be flexible. The importance in developing one must, therefore, always lie in the stimulation of debate rather than the creation of a document outlining firm details.
I was left with one uneasy thought at the end of the conference - although no-one actually made this point. Many of the systems that were described were intended to save time and effort and to provide a better service for staff and students - and often to save money. Their efficiency and, sometimes, their flexibility was emphasised, but I also felt that they could lead to rigidity rather than flexibility. Some were so detailed as to suggest a strong picture of controls and checks with timetables recording the whereabouts of personnel during every part of the day. Such systems would represent too great a shift in thinking to be acceptable. I could not help thinking that they were always doomed to failure since, however effective and helpful, they made IT the master rather than the servant of humans.
The sixth EUNIS conference, EUNIS 2000, Towards Virtual Libraries, will be held in Poznan, Poland, 13-14 April 2000. It will be organised by the Poznan Supercomputing and Network Centre. Further information will be available from September 1999 at: URL:<http://www.man.poznan.pl/>
Earlier EUNIS conferences took place at:
If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).
Christine Dugdale
ResIDe Electronic Library
University of the West of England
Email: Christine.Dugdale@uwe.ac.uk
URL: http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/itdev/reside/
Tel: (44) 965 6261 ext 3646
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Christine Dugdale manages the ResIDe Electronic Library at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Funded as an eLib short loan project, the ResIDe Electronic Library sought to explore such issues surrounding the implementation of an electronic reserve as copyright and collection management systems. ResIDe has expanded to include a current awareness database and a past examination paper database and is now a permanent part of the University's Library Services. |
For citation purposes:
Christine Dugdale,
"EUNIS '99: the 5th European University Information Systems Organization
Conference", Exploit Interactive, issue 2, 20 July 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue2/eunis99/>
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