Human oriented user services

Abstract

The purpose of a university computer center user services group is to serve the computing community. Services normally include consulting, education, publications, and documentation. The effectiveness of these services depends on an awareness of the needs of the user community. User Services professionals must be cognizant of the growing complexity of the user community and provide appropriate services. An educational preparation in the hard sciences is no longer a prerequisite to access to the computer. The demands of the non-technical user are varied, non-traditional and in many cases considerable. Traditional, technically oriented, documentation and matter of fact short term consulting will not meet the needs of these users. The bewildering impact of computing should be minimized by humanization of the interface between the computer and the user.