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Newsletter 14, March 1997 University Information Strategy

All Universities are being encouraged to develop Information Strategies by the funding councils working through the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee of the funding councils). The JISC is clear that an information strategy is not an information technology strategy: the intention of asking institutions to formulate information strategies is to help them think carefully about ways in which they develop and support academic, administrative and managerial processes.

The Executive Board established a working group in November 1995 to examine the Information Needs of the University. The report of a consultative exercise commissioned by the group was published in April 1996 and, so far, has led to:

• a policy for the on-going replacement of PCs in LSS student PC labs
• the establishment of a policy for the provision of PCs to support academic staff
• a commitment to move forward on the development/rationalization of local administrative information systems, and
• a consultancy study to review our organization of information services, including management information.

Executive Board, in May 1996, reformulated the working group as the Information Strategy Development group, and this group has built on the earlier work on Information Needs to produce a draft Information Strategy as a basis of consultation across the University. That consultation process will have ended by the time you read this (ah, the problems of deadlines and lead times when working with paper publications!) and a working version of an Information Strategy should be in the process of development — this is intended to be in place in time to help prioritization decisions over budgets for the 1997/8 session.

The Strategy itself will be reviewed on an annual basis as part of the corporate, strategic planning process of the University.

The major components of the strategy are expressed within sections relating to:

1. The Vision.
2. Guiding Principles.
3. Information sources, systems and services relating to the Academic Processes of the University: Teaching, Learning, Assessment, Research, Scholarly Activity & Consultancy.
4. Information sources, systems and services relating to the management and administration of the University.
5. Organizational Infrastructure, covering the organizational and policy infrastructure relating to the overall provision of information sources, systems and services and to the development of information-related skills.
6. Information Technology, covering the technical standards and policies relating to physical and software information infrastructure.

Obviously there is not room to reproduce the full strategy here (it should be available within your location), but it is worth drawing attention to a few key points.

The strategy assumes (demands?) a culture which values information and the sharing of information. This must be translated into action by all staff in the ways in which they acquire, handle and disseminate information, and by University managers in the allocation of resources, the definition of information structures and processes, staff development and the accountable management of staff.

Information generated by the University should be regarded as owned by the University rather than by organizational units or individual staff. For academic information, clear policies will apply to the issues of intellectual property rights.

Particular organizational units or individual staff will have the principal responsibility for different sorts of information or pieces of information. Such units or staff are accountable for appropriate accuracy of the information and for handling, use and dissemination in accordance with University policy and legal and ethical considerations.

All information should be freely available and easily accessible unless there is some specific reason to restrict access. Reasons for such restriction would include ethical, legal or commercial reasons. “Academic” information should not be regarded as accessible only to its originator or importer but as a University resource.

As far as possible, the University aims to make information available to everyone via similar interfaces and tools, with the same sort of information presented in the same way.

The University will not be driven by technology but by its information needs. However, the University will take advantage of relevant developments in technology where these can be exploited for increased effectiveness or efficiency of academic, administrative or managerial processes.

Within this broad framework, the strategy assumes:

• a greater emphasis on networked provision of information.
• an increasing demand for remote access to information sources.
• a need to consider the particular barriers to information access by part-time students and distance learners, and to identify how these may be overcome.
• a need to raise awareness of new and developing technologies, including, for example, the emergence of "the digital library", the availability of peer-based messaging/conferencing and collaborative-working systems, and technologies that aid innovative forms of student assessment.
• a need to minimize the number of interfaces presented to users by computer systems.
• a demand for systems to aid collaborative ventures and communication with partner institutions.
• on-going extension of Internet and Intranet (internal information services using Internet technologies) access.
• a need to better support managerial decision-making.

Of course, elements of the overall strategy will have to be prioritized and phased — we can’t do all we would like immediately. However, the strategy gives us rational basis for such decisions — with clear and agreed pointers towards our destination.