Universities versus Learning Organisations LO28066

From: Minnigh (L.D.Minnigh@library.tudelft.nl)
Date: 03/26/02


Replying to LO28011 --

Cara Ana, dear LO' ers,

Thank you for putting forward this topic. I must confess that - contrary
to what I used to do - have not yet read every recent contribution on this
list. It has a reason: I recently quit my job at a university. And this
change of life needs some new daily rhythm to which I am not yet fully
equiped.

But let me tell you why I left the university, because I think that it
gives you and others some insight in the academic world of today. But let
me not generalise too fast; I will focus on the Delft University of
Technology, Netherlands.

In Europe some strange things happen at universities. One of the most
serious changes is that some 6 or 700 years of tradition has thrown away.
The old tradition will be transformed to the Anglo-Saxon system of
Bachelors and Masters degrees and here in the Netherlands the Master
course will be given in the English language. Can you imagine - a Dutch
professor lecturing to a majority of Dutch students in English?

I have worked for 15 years in the university library. This is an
organisation of roughly 200 employees. It is so big because this library
is also the national library for the technical and natural sciences. Some
600 to 1000 daily requests for copies of journal articles are treated.
These requests come from national and international companies.

Some 10 years ago I was involved with finding ways for new sources of
extra money. Mainly to cope with the fabulously increased subscription
prices of journals (of which a great number come from Dutch Elsevier :-((
). We started with workshops in Internet (in those days a new way to get
hold of information), building literature databases, alert services and
consultancy, mainly to industrial libraries. One of the consultancy
products was the advice in knowledge management. I will not go into
detail, but this last issue was a strange thing. We adviced others how to
do this, whereas in our own organisation it was nothing . At the moment
the new hype is 'virtual knowledge centres'.

One month ago I left this organisation. Why? There are many reasons but
the main reason is that perhaps only 10 % of the personel has still some
feeling with the library's commodity: (printed) information. How could one
work in an organisation where you can't love (feeling, smelling, tasting,
touching) the raw material? It took me some while before I realised the
fable of the boiled frog and that I was one of these frogs. The
organisation could very well be a company in drinking water or something
else. Changement from touchable paper to bits and bites was gradual. Maybe
I am too old fashioned for such type of world, but I jumped out the
boiling water, hopefully just in time.

What happened meanwhile at the very university? Lots of things. Apart from
the before mentioned and most recent change, many reorganisations follow one
next to the other. Originally separate faculties are merged together in
larger units. New disciplines were introduced. Various cooperations with
other universities started. Interfaculty research started. Themes or
concepts applicable in many different disciplines are now themes of
research. Yes, the main attention is given to research, education comes on
the second place.
All these measures are good signs that there are different flows to escape
the old narrow boxes of disciplines and faculties. I was also very
enthousiastic about this new wave through the whole university.
However....
Most of the above new directions to a possible LO are the facade. If one
looks behind this facade, there is not so much changed. Not so surprising
because I think that changing towards a LO takes a lot of time, maybe one
generation. And talking about generations, The personel on the university is
not well distributed in age. A lot of grey hair occupying posts for younger
teachers and researchers.

My impression is that the management of the university, although not
mentioning the words 'Learning Organisation' in the sense of Senge,
strives to a situation that lots of things have in common with a LO. There
is also initiative from the faculties themselves. The great barrier reef
in universities is in my mind 'tradition'. Please, understand me well. I
am not a priori against tradition. But sometimes, particularly when things
should be changed, some traditional elements could be very retarding. But
there is also a modern retarding element. The interpersonal contacts
become less and less. Communication between neighbours is already through
e-mail. I simmilar situation as in the library. Also in education with
tele-education, computerassisted education, Black Board, etc. contacts
become less and less. And I am afraid that this tendency might very well
be the most important enemy of a LO.

But it is also that on this list e-mail work so well. And many of us feel
this list as a LO. How comes this strange difference?

Leo Minnigh

-- 

Minnigh <L.D.Minnigh@library.tudelft.nl>

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