Hunter Library - IT infrastructure of a library

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Information Management, grade: 1.0, Western Carolina University, course: Information Systems for Competitive Advantage, language: English, abstract: Hunter Library is the library of Western Carolina University which has 8,400 students. Its major task is to provide services for the students and faculty members of Western Carolina University. Hunter Library classifies its services into various categories. The first service is called circulation. This includes checking out items, online renewal, reserves (items for use in library), laptop lending, flash drive lending, photocopiers and printers, and microfilm and microfiche readers. The interlibrary loan service offers the possibility to provide material from the networked libraries UNC-Asheville and Appalachian State University. The documents are distributed by a document delivery service called ABC Express. The documents can usually be delivered in one to four days. Due to the service 'View My Record' students are able to see online how many documents they have lent and when they become due. The following paper studies the basic IT-strategy of this institutionalized organization and evaluates its business allignment, its IT organizational structure and architecture. It also proposes further development through an advanced information management system.