Don't be afraid to reorganize
Mark H. Castner · 1990
One thing we understand in the computer business, if nothing else, is that things change. Manufacturers produce new versions of software and new models of hardware, computer center employees come and go, faculty develop new interests, and even more students want to use the public labs!So why are we surprised when things change in user services? New workshops need to be taught or they need to be offered at different times. For every software package that goes out of use, two or three become popular and need consultant support. One year we obtain funding for a graduate assistant; another year we loose it.Maybe it is not so much that we are surprised that things change in user services. Rather we don't like to admit that when our clientele changes or the college as a whole changes or the whole world changes, we have to change our user services organization to reflect the new reality.Reorganization is work. Hard work. But it has to be done. It is less painful when it can be done incrementally. If we are lucky enough to have our world change slowly and even luckier to see those changes for what they are, we can make the necessary adjustments without having to go through a more extensive reorganization.But that is not our focus here. We are going to deal with broader range changes, the kind that go on over several months in a planned and organized fashion, the kind of reorganization in which everyone is all too painfully aware of what they are going through.This account is based in large part on a personal odyssey. It is told from the point of view of an assistant director for user services and applies best to a smaller school, say 2000 to 4000 full-time students. This is one way to go about reorganizing a user services operation. Some of the recommendations and procedures will apply to your operation; others may serve to give you other ideas. Hopefully many of the observations and recommendations will apply to schools of other sizes but the reader must be the judge of that.