EDUCAUSE Review Articles; IT- Library Collaboration; and Articles, Papers, and Reports

Libraries are successful to the extent that they can bridge communities and can leverage the diversity of the quest, the research, and the discovery. By building bridges among various sectors, libraries will be able to define themselves in the next generation.

The author discusses the delicate balance of creating collaborative relationships between faculty, librarians and IT staff. One such Fellowship effort is sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). In attracting recent Ph.D.s who believe that there are opportunities to develop meaningful linkages between disciplinary scholarship, libraries, archives, and evolving digital tools, the program brings scholars with both teaching and digital experience into the academic library so that they may serve as a bridge between librarians, faculty, and IT professionals.

"Informatics support has some elements of IT knowledge, some elements of library and information science expertise, and some elements of data management skills.... This calls for a team approach including both libraries and IT organizations but also going beyond both at some level."

The mergers of IT and library operations in higher education institutions are producing a new generation of information organizations, providing services and opportunities that neither IT nor the library can offer separately.