Southern Methodist University's libraries and central IT staff have been working hand in hand for more than 30 years to provide high quality information technology tools in support of the University's academic mission. The technology might change, the players might change, but the commitment of these two units goes above and beyond to serve University goals. Not intended to document every technological change on campus, this article focuses on the various stages in this fruitful relationship, and explores the organizational, cultural and environmental factors that have sustained this strategic alliance and fostered its growth over the years.

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The convergence of computing, communications, and traditional educational technologies enables us to discuss, plan, create, and implement fundamentally unique strategies for providing access to people and information. The scientific process is used as an approach to teaching-learning through discovery. Over the last several years, SUNY Plattsburgh, like many universities across the world, has created a technology environment on campus which provides ubiquitous access to both on- and off-campus information resources for faculty and students. The article describes the development of a teaching-learning module in biology which makes creative use of the Internet and other communications and computing media. This example is placed in the context of strategies which must be employed—both locally and globally—in order to realize the authors' vision of the 21st century classroom-scholarship environment.

In November 1998, the new Fondren Library Center (FLC) was dedicated at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas. This building, connecting the main Fondren Library with the Science and Engineering Library (SEL), was the first building to be completed in SMU’s five year capital campaign “The campaign for SMU: a time to lead”, 1997‐2002. Was this seminal event a reflection of the university’s commitment to its library system; a tribute to donor generosity; the result of intense lobbying on the part of faculty and library staff; a happy accident; or some combination of all of the above? The article hopes to show that, like much fund‐raising, the latter was the case.