Mike Patten
Died August 2006
Mike worked at what was then Southampton Institute between 1982 and 1997. He was firstly Chief Librarian, and then Dean of Academic Information Services (AIS) - the forerunner to the Learning and Information Service.
Mike always sought to make the library and IT service pivotal to the academic working of the University. His endeavours contributed largely to the converging of the library and IT into AIS, of which he was the first Dean. In addition, he strove to forge connections between academic staff and support staff so that each could see that their efforts to provide a service to students were more likely to be effective if they were integrated. He was heavily involved in the decision to build the new Mountbatten Library, and saw in that decision the opportunity to present the library as the shop window of the Institute in its early endeavours to gain university status.
His strategic vision in that regard saw the library embracing the opportunities of the new digital era to the extent that, in the 1990s, the library was in the forefront of UK academic libraries in its offerings of electronic learning resources. Mike was always proud that the library had its own website before the Institute itself.
Mike, like a lot of Welshmen, played much rugby in his youth, but during his time at the Institute he was known, for his participation in the staff cricket team, and with anything to do with staff associations. There’ll still be many current staff that remember him with affection.