Keynote"Computer and Information Sciences - Convergence or Co-existence?" Biographical Note Nigel Macartney is currently Director of Information Services at the University of Ulster, entailing responsibility for the library, archive, computing and reprographic services used by the 23,000 students and 3,500 staff of the University. He served as Director of the British Library Research and Innovation Centre between 1995 and 1999, where he encouraged the development of national research funding strategies and close co-operation between national library organisations. From 1982 to 1995 he was Librarian at the University of Hertfordshire , formerly Hatfield Polytechnic; his roles here included provision of information services to industry and business, academic library co-operation and new technology. He was born in Manchester and, after taking a degree in History at Cambridge , his early career encompassed experience in public and further education libraries. He has some knowledge of European libraries through his work at the British Library and through an EU TEMPUS project involving collaborative work with Technical Universities in Poland . He has served on several Government advisory committees. His current interests include learning resource centre design and implementation of IT and Information strategies. He is also playing a leading role in the business process review programme being implemented at the University of Ulster . He is a member of the North Eastern Education and Library Board in Northern Ireland and Chairman of the Board's Library Committee. He is also Honorary Treasurer of the Chartered Institute of Library and information Professionals. The paper will explore parallels in the development of both computer sciences and library and information sciences in terms of teaching and research as well as in service provision. In recent years academic support services (libraries, computer and media services) in HE have increasingly converged under a single management, although there are signs now of a retreat from this type of structure. The author will cover the rationale for these developments and draw conclusions on the conditions for successful integration of services. He will compare his analysis with trends in the organisation and management of computer and library/ information sciences schools in UK universities.
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