What the guidelines say

Why an Information Strategy?

'Information was the lifeblood of Higher Education Institutions (HEI). It is a resource which needed to be managed on par with finance and human resources. Information must be considered to be part of the infrastructure of an HEI - whether it is information for teaching and learning, for research, or for management.'

Original JISC Guidelines - Orna, E (2004) Information strategy in practice. Gower Publishing Ltd.

The Guidelines state that the 'objective of having an Information Strategy is: to have a clear, accepted and efficient means by which information of all kinds is created, handled and used to support and deliver the aims of the institution. The information concerned must embrace all modes - text, data, voice, and image - whether held on computer or not. The above means need to include policies on information, decision making, mechanisms, individual and organisational responsibilities and information systems'.

The Guidelines argued that most information systems and information technology strategies at the time suffered from a tendency to be technology driven, to focus on management related information rather than academic information and to find ways to use technology to automate existing processes rather than to fundamentally reassess how teaching and learning and research were undertaken. They stressed that the effort invested in developing an information strategy could help an institution avoid some of the following risks:

• Fragmentation within the academic community often exacerbated by devolved budgets, subject loyalties resulting in missed opportunities for new approaches to teaching and learning and for better relationships to help research initiative
• Failing to provide student centred learning and services - reducing the attractiveness of the institution to potential students
• Wasting or not exploiting fully the investment in information systems and technology by not making the necessary changes to working practices, attitudes and behaviours
• Not fully realising the productivity gains from such investments by not having sufficient guidelines and training resulting in staff and students wasting time searching for information just because the technology is there
• Failure to adopt appropriate standards and practices with possible legal consequences

Many will recognise these as issues faced by some of today's institutions. Having an information strategy in itself would not be a guarantee of avoiding these risks, the strategy has to be embedded and people need to use it, then it becomes a framework of reference, attached to the business strategy, within which it builds strategies, standards, procedures, and rules for how people use information and knowledge, and this can link productively into other institutional strategies (Orna 2004).