Information Services Newsletter
Director's Welcome

As this second issue of Information Services Newsletter goes to press, members of the Department's staff are meeting a delegation from each faculty to agree priorities for the next year or so. Already, only halfway through the process, there is some consensus on the areas that ISD should be working on. These include new approaches to IT laboratory design to ensure reliability, especially on print services and Library support for distance learners, particularly those studying through Campus One. The opening of the Learning Resource Centre at Jordanstown is now expected during April. This building and its sister at Magee will provide several hundred open access workstations which should take a considerable amount of pressure off the laboratories, many of which currently double as time tabled teaching rooms and open access IT facilities.

A considerable investment has been made in the IT infrastructure of the University over the last year, funded partly by the Department of Employment and Learning and partly by the University's SUCCINCT programme. The full results of this expenditure will start to show during the summer and the early part of the new academic year. A description of the benefits of these programmes will be circulated in newsletters and committee papers in the Spring. During the current year, however, the upgrading of networks, hardware and software has led to some difficulties for staff and students. We are confident that IT systems are now much more resilient than before and we are working hard to tackle any remaining problem areas. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to remind readers that I and my colleagues are always willing to meet staff and students to agree how to improve our services.

Nigel Macartney