Lessons learned from the library: building partnerships between campus and departmental IT support

How to do more with less has become a recurring theme in discussions amongst IT professionals, but this has been a theme for library professionals for many years. Libraries have worked to build consortiums allowing them to minimize duplication of services, thereby maximizing their utilization of resources while assuring a high quality of service for patrons. A review was undertaken of the University of Illinois Library system to consider how the lessons they have learned regarding resource sharing amongst campus and departmental libraries could be applied to University of Illinois IT support groups. This paper will provide an overview of the findings from this study. In addition, specific examples of how the University of Illinois campus-wide IT support group and departmental IT support groups are working together to optimize centralized and distributed services as a means for increasing the overall service levels while minimizing overall support costs.