Overview
Merged information services organizations create the best environment for fostering breakthrough scholarly activity. Producing breakthrough performance in a rapidly changing environment requires new ways of working. In addressing the evolution of teaching, learning, and research, merged information services organizations have a unique opportunity to engage faculty, staff, and students. These constituents do not distinguish between information content and knowledge tools or technology. Merging organizations, therefore, "lowers the thresholds" for meeting constituent needs and ensuring their success, enabling breakthrough performances.
The Conference at Kenyon 2006: Integrating Library and Computing Services is designed to help college and university administrators, professional staff, and faculty learn more about integrated library and computing services. The Conference will feature special invited speakers and panel discussions to facilitate group discussions, question and answer periods, and networking.
The two-day conference will include a half-day workshop, for college presidents and senior administrators, by Dick Chait: Building a Better Board: What's a President to Do? Based on the results of a recent three-year research project, this workshop will help participants translate fresh ideas into practical policies. A widely-published scholar and a frequent higher education consultant, Chait is an expert in helping college presidents lead their trustees to the realm of macrogovernance rather than micromanagement.
How the Conference Program Addresses the Premise
You will hear and participate in discussions on costs and benefits of integrating libraries and computing services. Panelists from the sponsoring institutions with integrated information services organizations will describe their institutions' experiences, evolutionary paths, and outcomes to date, in terms of service to their institutional constituents. A lot of time will be allocated for open discussions, and for Q&A. Attendees will be invited to discuss with each other, and with the panelists, the current state of their own thinking on integrating, the issues they see as critical in their decision-making process, and problems they see emerging if they adopt an integrated approach, or if they do not. Presidents, chief information officers, directors of IT services, directors of libraries, chief academic officers and other senior administrators, faculty, and staff in leadership positions in library and IT services might attend.
You will hear and participate in discussions on issues in supporting the faculty constituency in integrated library and computing services organizations. Panel discussions will facilitate open group discussions and sharing of ideas among CIOs, leadership staff of integrated information services organizations, presidents and administrators. In addition to learning about varying approaches and philosophies, attendees will be able to establish relationships with colleagues who experience similar situations. The presence and participation of presidents and senior administrators will promote better understanding by the service providers of institutional missions and goals, and better understanding by the executives of the nature of modern information services. Staff in leadership positions in integrated library/IT organizations, presidents, faculty, chief information officers, directors of IT services, directors of libraries, chief academic officers, and other senior administrators might attend.
Building a Better Board: What's a President to Do? is a workshop with Richard Chait of Harvard University. Few, if any, relationships are as vital to a college president as the partnership between the CEO and the board of trustees. The central goal of this half-day workshop is to help presidents and, by extension institutions, derive greater value from their boards, as trustees derive greater meaning from their service. The workshop will be facilitated by Richard Chait, professor of higher education at Harvard University, a well-published scholar of trusteeship, and a frequent consultant to boards and presidents. Based on the results of a recent three-year research project, Chait will offer a new way to think about governance and a new way to think while governing. We will discuss what presidents can do to focus their trustees' attention and energy on macrogovernance rather than micromanagement. This shift entails learning to work with the board in three different, but related, modes: fiduciary, strategic, and generative. The workshop will examine governance as leadership in principle and in practice, translating fresh ideas into feasible actions.
Specifically, the workshop will:
Conference Program and Schedule
PLEASE SEE KENYON CAMPUS MAPS FOR BUILDING LOCATIONS
Registration and Fees
The last day to register for The Conference at Kenyon 2006: Integrating Library and Computing Services, is March 10, 2006.
The conference registration fee (covers most meals, materials, and miscellaneous expenses) is $80 per attendee. Attendees must cover their own travel and lodging costs.
The Dick Chait seminar is limited to 20 presidents and senior administrators. There will be an additional $300 fee to attend this workshop.
Please use the on-line registration form to register for the conference.
Directions and Accommodations
Kenyon College is in Gambier, Ohio. It is about an hour's drive from the Columbus, Ohio, airport. If you fly, try to arrive in Columbus in the afternoon or early evening of March 14 so you can attend the welcoming reception that evening. Plan your flight home to depart the Columbus airport at 4:00 pm or later on Thursday the 16th (if you are not staying for the Dick Chait presentation).
See the following web pages for more information:
Conference Program Planning Group
This conference is conceived, planned, and administered by members of the sponsoring institutions:
For More Information