Abstract
Increasingly, colleges and universities are, or are considering, merging the administration of their libraries and campus computing operations under a single administrative officer such as a chief information officer. Special conditions must prevail for this model to be successful, such as how the decision coincides with the institution's mission, the organizational climate and culture within the merging units on campus, organizational maturity and readiness, the quality of existing services, and adequate planning. This paper reports the results of research conducted with chief information officers at four-year and graduate-level colleges and universities where this organizational model is already in place, and outlines the practical and theoretical issues universities and colleges should consider before and after they decide whether to adopt the merged organization and CIO model.