Information teaching at the University of Strathclyde

information

management

at the University of Sheffield

programnle. These are ‘Inf~rlnation Management’ and ‘Organizational Information Resources’ which is concerned with records management, internal documentation and its organization, and database management systems. The inf~}rin~~ti(~n rnan~~~etnent course is conducted partly by lectures and partly by seminars led by individual students, or teams of students. In 19% this approach led to seminar papers and subsequentiy term papers on topics as diverse as models of decision-making and information propresenting statistical and cessing. numeric information, the visual presentation of textual information, financial information and its use in organiz~~tions, and human factors in the design of information systems. A dissertation is a requirement ol the Masters programmes in USDIS and this gives students an opportunity to pursue specialist topics in some depth. Generally, the projects involve some genuine field research, but occasionally (and valuably) a dissertation may hc a piece of desk research. In the current year topics which can he desig‘information management’ nated topics include: Some aspects of computers in local government with special reference to town planning departments. Marketing a statistical advisory service. A review of cost-benefit techniques as applied to industrial library and information service management.

information

4. Using *~NFORMATlON’: a computer-assisted learning package to introduce the database management system INFORMATION, Within the existing programmes of the Department, therefore, it is possible for a student to assemble core and optional papers into 3 personal information management syllabus, such as that shown below, which bears comparison with programmer elsewhere. Term I 1.

L Generation,

1.2 1.3 1.4 1 .S

communication and utilization of information Information storage and retrieval Computing and telecotnmunications Information resources Information system design and management

Term 2

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4

2.5

Computing and telecominunications (c~~ntinued) information management Organizational information resources Knowledge processing (includes treatment of expert systems and an ii~tr~~duction to PROLOG) Computer-based information retrieval services

Term 3 und .summe~ Dissertation

Possible alternative courses for Term 2 would include: Advanced programming, Advanced text processing, and

Teaching at the University of Strathclyde

A. DOSWELL.

Depurtmrnt

of Informution

Scknce,

The department The Department arose phoenix-like in 19% from the ashes of two distinctly different departments: the School of Librarianship in the Arts and Social Science Faculty, and the Department of Office Organisation in the StrathClyde Business School. Unsurprisingly the new Department’s offerings in

252

Uniwrsity

of Struthci_yrle, UK

information management do not all occur in one course, although the focus of attention has to he the recently introduced Diploma/Masters course in Information Management.

Undergraduate

courses

At the undergraduate

level

the

De-

lnf~)rmati~~n storage and retrieval systern design, construction and evaluation.

A possible

new programme

In 1983 the Science

and Engineering Research Council announced an initiative to improve the opportunities for training in information technology. USDIS put forward a proposal for a new Masters degree in ~nf(~rrn~~ti~~n Resource M~~n~lgcrneilt which. after several rounds of discussion and resubmission, was finally unsuccessful in attracting studentships and staffing. However. the Senate of the LJniversity has given its approval to the proposed degree progr~~lnlll~ and other ways of implementing it are now being pursued. The proposed syllabus is now slightly out of date. so rapidly is the field moving, but a considerable amount was learnt in its preparation and affected the other programmes in the department in the way described above.

Conclusion Information rn~~n~l~erncnt is an emerging field with the usual problems of identity and confusion over directions. Experience at USDIS suggests that existing programmes in information science can provide the basis for new dev~l~~plnents and we would argue that without that basis programmes are likely to be less than satisfactory.

partment has a currently dilninisl~ing presence: the Office Org~~nisati~~n undergraduate course terminated in 1985; the Librarianship undergraduate course is likely to end this academic year. A new Office Organisation undergraduate course was designed and approved but early on in academic year 1985-86 was withdrawn, at the instigation of the staff in the newly merged Department. in order that a new more ‘information management’ oriented undergraduate course could be developed. What this new course will look like. whether it will be

A. DOSWELL

approved, and when it will start are all matters for speculation.

Post-graduate

courses

At the post-graduate level the Department runs three taught courses itself as well as providing major teaching contributions to other courses. The three departmental courses are: a post-graduate diploma in Secretarial Studies, a diploma/masters in Information and Library Studies, and a diploma/masters in Information Management. The total enrolment for these three courses is around 100 students. The diploma in Secretarial Studies has during its existence been a source of considerable contention within the university as clearly some people felt that secretaries and universities did not go together too well. But of course secretaries, provided they are not confused with typists, can be seen as being one of the current major professional groups of information managers. The second course is the diploma/ masters in Information and Library Studies. This was revamped for academic year 1985-86 from being a solely vocational librarian course to something wider ranging as the word information, which now appears in the title, suggests. The professional librarian associations are certainly in a state of considerable rethinking at the moment and it could well be that as a result of this rethinking a new breed of librarian will appear ready and able to make a valuable contribution to the management of corporate information in a more active sense than perhaps has been the case in the past. The third course and the first product of the new department is the diploma/masters in Information Management. The IM course is different from the other two courses in that it is not directly aimed at a currently well defined occupational group and as its name implies the course carried the burden of current departmental thinking concerning what information management is.

The information management course contents The IM course consists of six classes. three ‘practical’ and three ‘theoretical’, which last for 20 weeks, and take some three hours each, each week. It was assumed that students coming into the course might know nothing about personal computers at all, and that even if they did the range and level of knowledge they had could be very varied. So the practical teaching builds from an assumed zero base and is mostly covered in one class ‘Information processing applications’ where word processing, databases and information retrieval are dealt with. This material is covered both as particular application programs with which students have to become adept and as concepts concerning information creation, storage and retrieval. The difficult question of how to tackle programming has been resolved in favour of students being introduced to a structured language which ties in with the information storage and retrieval work: dBase II. In this language the emphasis is placed upon the information contained within files and databases and its manipulation rather than the ‘technical’ problems of how to set up files and databases. In parallel with this class students have practical classes dealing with networks (the department has its own IBM network) and ‘knowledge management’ where. starting from a theoretical discussion of decision-making, the students are taken through the use of spreadsheets to help support on to the use of decision-making, spreadsheet-like expert systems. Balancing all the practical work are classes dealing with the management of the human resource of information systems, the economics of and governmental policy towards information. and information technology and systems analysis although, unlike the identically named course at Lancaster. emphasis upon the methodology of system analysis is not currently ;I major concern. At the end of 20 weeks students should know a lot about how to use personal computer systems and what they can do - on an individual basis.

The course is then designed to intcgrate these individual con~ponents of knowledge. Here we are concerned with two integrations: first with intcgrating the knowledge gained in the different classes so that the different classes arc decomp~~rtmentalized. and second with changing the students from useful i~zrli~~iflrrrrls into people who can work together in tc~rrr~s and manage tight time-scaled projects. This will be done by using case study based projects for students working both individually and as members of teams. They will have to produce both written and oral reports to their peers and academic staff, and will be ,judged on both their individual contributions and the way they motivate others. This project phase will count ;I\ another class and will have to he passed in the same way as the other classes.

The information

course

The overall emphasis of the course is to get people to a position where they are reasonably well informed. practically and theoretically about the commonly available, and likely to become available, hardware and software encountered outside massive data processing facilities. That is where we see the action being as far as most public and private sector organizations are concerned. In addition to these ‘skills’ we want our graduates to have an understanding. through the knowledge of information economics and policy, of what is going on in the world around them so they can remain alert to how it may affect them. To choose ;I military analogy - we do not wish to make the mistake of training cavalry soldiers in a nuclear age.

Course philosophy objectives

and

It might be expected that this Information Management course represents ;I melding of two very different traditions: those of a department within ;I Business School and those of a School of Librarianship. Whilst that is true to an extent, it is truer that the original academic backgrounds of the people

Information

:ind

at the University

teaching

involved

in the design. of

delivery

tremendously nothing

this

varied

of Strathclyde

development ;irc course

of the pc that the problems standing

:md owe almost

to the dqutment the

of under-

have started

become alive ;md pop&u.

they

are

in

this

now w,orking in. What

information

tion is rilther

The

involved

Until

methods

of

century.

moving

is ;I convic-

fast started to appear. the problrms

tion

processing

motion

that

power

the

information

wlhich is being

terms

unleashed,

of general ;Iccessibility.

development

of

pcr\on;il

tional

by the

of inforni~ition.

WC‘ :lrt: only just

to glimpse

wh:lt

:uid understanding led

force

and developments

our understanding ning

hzmdful ton,

start

At

hcgin-

these changes

Management

We

Only

;I

with

;~re in

regilrds

processing.

;I

to

in-

Only

iis WJCAI

to process inform:ition

on any-

ger

or

one

ago -

justification).

not

P:lrt

role of the information

is seen

others

;IS

common

of

bridge

m;m;l-

with

many

between

uncomprehending

two

groups:

the user and the DP/information

sys-

tem m~unagerianalyst. But just ;IS is the cxx

with

many bridges

the information that is, will important

need to understand

rently

what we ;lrc doing

in ;I

mutu:llly

thing more th;m ;I human scale does ;I In current

years

WC feel that

manager.

the bridge

in the end become more than

the two

groups

cur-

being linked.

practice inforni:ition

experts h:lvc. with not:lble exceptions.

to. For it is only with the dvent

Information

let alone

people.

hundred

:md fifty

our duty is to make this clear :md to The

of

of people. for example Newposition

arise.

might be and might

relevant

by most

formation

in

not

had any insight.

similar

changes in organiza-

structure

the moment

understood

computer

based systems will bc the driving for fundamental

in

were

had one

hundred

pave 21way for change.

relatively

course do have in ~~I~III~II

medicine

very high (with

situz

like that in the physical

sciences in the seventeenth

staff

to

the SXIIC kind of standing ;IS doctors of

at Aston

;ger has ;m overland

University

inadequate problem

of input

cap:lcity for

and an

output.

cannot be perfectly

This

resolved,

but it can be grekltly ameliorated design; The

commonly

held view of informa-

At the level of methodology

im impor-

tion management is th:lt it is about the

tant input h;rs been the work of Peter

management

Checkland

of the information

tion of ;in organiz:ition,

func-

in particular,

tems.

in the :rrea of ‘soft’

We

have

developed

sys-

various

of the resources alloc:lted to the intro-

frameworks,

duction,

make possible this concept of informal-

design. developnicnt,

m:lintenance

of information

ogy for the support

tcchnol-

of organization~ll

activities.

While

perfectly

valid viewpoint.

we think that this i\ ;I

one of considerable work,

use :ind

:ind indeed

relevlmce

to our

WC are guided

by ;I different

concept of inform;ition

management.

This

is

the

strategies

development

neccssnry

effective

matching

to

of

:m

of the inform:ltion

needs of individuals

to their

tion processing cqicitics.

The

interac-

to working concern

:kpproach is to provide

in

stabil-

ity in the many interpersomll tions that urt‘ natural

in an

in

tion management:

our

the individual

:md

Centrd

to our work

is the framework

which we call ‘strategies tion

m:magement’.

identified tion

for informa-

there

approaching

they

effectively.

and research

c:lpacities

information

to

his

formation

management

cybernetic

base, :111dof particular

in-

have il strong im-

portance here is the work of R. Ashby on

requisite

Stafford

254

Beer’s

variety. Vi:tble

together

with

System Model.

pro-

perceived

demands.

in two major first,

sets of m:ltching

the m:ltching

formation quantity

processing of

formation

of his limited

in-

cap:ibilities

to ;I

relev:mt

ptmticflly

(input) these

which

matching

capabilities of

the

capacities (as output) :lchieve multiple ment (thus,

tasks:

is

(thus.

same

in-

vastly the

second, limited

with the need to

effects in his environ-

the need to design :lmpli-

fication). What

and by design of information

managc-

ment processes which help to achieve ;I better matching than th:lt which can normally

occur by chnnce. The

strategies

which

we

have

and which

provide

the

processes

design

nature of the managcri:d

by the

t:lsk ;I man-

three

identified

a fr:lmework implied

for above

are: Adjustments

to

structure; ments

by

the

information the silrne

orgmization

structural

it is possible

adjust-

to reduce the

needs of managers time

;IS improving

at the

quality of the control over the tasks under

their

attention.

In

this

strategy we are concerned with the ;md information m:ltch

flows

the natural tasks

regulatory

convers:ltions;

in

organiza-

organizational

this

organizational

while

is focused

level provided structure.

of

with

the

very ness.

by the organization second

strategy

inter:lctions. levels

is

of inter-

The

same

capacity c:tn be used

different At

first

in the macro-

focused in the micro-level personal

to and

capacity.

Improvements strategy

ch:mnels in order

complexity

intcrconnectedness tiomd

channel we ilrc: saying is th:lt

by

of the problem

design of communic:rtion

In essence the manager is involved

the in

permit

the d~igr~ of the match-

need to design attcnu:ition);

teaching

have

ing of the manager’s information

manage his own inform:ition Our

wt‘

three strategies for informa-

management;

beyond

th:lt he can perform

to

indeed our tellching

manager with the ~~~odcls:md tools to needs so

tools

is based on all these developments.

cessing

informa-

Effective

this context means maintGning

orgmization.

the

achieve

methods

by awareness

at

of effective-

the same time

that

it is