The integrated Information Infrastructure in the University of Salford

This paper describes the evolution of an integrated information service over a 20 year period. The main focus is on progress since 1997, when the newly appointed Director of the University Salford converged service, then called Academic Information Services, gave a paper at Eunis97. In his paper, Mark Clark (1997) outlined the challenges that he had to face in creating a new organisation from the managerially converged service in the University and the separate library and IT departments of the recently merged University College Salford. Despite the challenges, full convergence of the academic IT and library services was achieved. Since then the service at Salford, now called Information Services Division (ISD), has been transformed not only as it has acquired new responsibilities but by building on its early implementation of convergence a fully integrated service has been created. Current responsibilities include: library services; learning resources provision; support for learning technologies and the institutional VLE; student academic and administrative computing; telephony infrastructure and services; IT infrastructure and data network,; freedom of information, data protection and copyright; and ICT, information skills and business systems skills development for all University members. The integrated approach has enabled a flexible service, with strategies designed to ensure alignment to the current and emerging needs of the customer and the organisation