Melting Pot of Library and IT Culture in a New Turkish University: a Journey towards Multi Anything

Abstract

This paper will discuss the creation of a converged organisation consisting of information technology and library professionals at a newly established, private and not-for-profit university in Turkey. During the planning and implementation phases, the challenges encountered included cultural, professional, sectoral and generational differences. Some of the opportunities were: - creation of a brand new organisation, planning and delivering information services jointly with a team drawn from both Information Technology (IT) and library, and managing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) projects with a hybrid team whose members came from a wide range of backgrounds.Techniques such as policy development, internal marketing, cross-sectoral team building, staff development, project management framework and coaching were employed as part of the process to create the converged organisation. The paper will argue that the process and outcomes are part of a long and multi-faceted journey and will discuss future plans for the University and the Information Services team.As this is the first converged library and IT structure in a university in Turkey, the process did not involve the traditional change management strategies usually employed in organisations which have been in existence for some time. Strategies usually adopted in start-up organisations were found to be more appropriate in the case of Ozyegin University, as the establishment and development of the university as a whole were undertaken in an entrepreneurial way common to start-up organisations.