Essential Library Services for the Distance Learner

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Essential Library Servicesfor the Distance
Learner

• Elizabeth Dupuis
• September 20, 2001
• Webcast Series on Student Services sponsored by
  WCET

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Speaker

• Elizabeth Dupuis
• Head Librarian, Digital Information Literacy
  Office at the University of Texas at
  Austin
• beth_at_mail.utexas.edu

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Participants

• Why are you interested in this topic?
• Does your institution have a well-established
  distance education program?
• Are library services integrated in your distance
  education program?

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Objectives

• Discuss need for libraries in all educational
  environments
• Develop a list of library services for distance
  learners
• Highlight models of these types of services and
  resources
• Incorporate time for discussion and questions

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Educational Mission of Libraries

• Information access and management
• Support of the curriculum and personal interests
• Information literacy
• Lifelong learning

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• Library resources and services in institutions of
  higher education must meet the needs of all their
  faculty, students, and academic support staff,
  wherever these individuals are located -- whether
  on a main campus, off campus, in distance
  education or extended campus programs, or in the
  absence of a campus at all in courses taken for
  credit or non-credit in continuing education
  programs in courses attended in person or by
  means of electronic transmission or any other
  means of distance education.
• -- Guidelines for Distance Learning Library
  Services

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ACRL Guidelines

• ACRL Guidelines for Distance Learning Library
  Services
• http//www.ala.org/acrl/guides/distlrng.html
• Highlights
• Access to equivalent library resources and
  services provided on campus
• Collaboration with other campus agencies and
  other libraries
• Instill lifelong learning through information
  literacy
• Promote and assess library integration into
  courses and overall program

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• increasingly, the student in a residence hall
  or at home ten miles away from campus represents
  a new type of library user, "the periodic
  distance learner," whose library needs-especially
  access to electronic information services are not
  very different from those of a student one
  hundred or one thousand miles from campus.
• Maryhelen Jones and Thomas J. Moore,
• Libraries and Other Academic Support Services for
  Distance Learning

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Library Services

• Name the traditional services you consider
  essential
• for an academic library to offer.

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Essential Library Services

• Well-developed web sites
• Reference and consulting
• Reciprocal borrowing
• Document delivery

• Reserves materials
• Content with remote access
• Instruction and online guides
• Information management tools

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Web Site

• Represents entire library
• Comprehensive
• Clarity and jargon-free
• Well-maintained
• Link from relevant course and institutional pages

• Distance Learning Services from U of Minnesota
  http//www.lib.umn.edu/dist/
• Services for Distance Education Students at U of
  British Columbia http//ocls.cmich.edu/

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Reference and Consulting

• Email, video and chat
• Offered reasonable hours
• Open access to all users
• Toll free phone numbers
• Collaboratively provided by staff in different
  regions

• Interactive Reference Service at UC Irvine
• Desktop Videoconference at U of Michigan
• Collaborative Digital Reference Service by
  Library of Congress

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Reciprocal Borrowing

• Interlibrary loan and consortiums
• Agreements / identification
• Costs of mailing items to and from student

• U of Wisconsin
• Southern Illinois Learning Resources Cooperative
• OhioLINK

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Document Delivery

• Provision of articles not available in full text
• Choice of delivery
• Cost recovery
• Can be contracted to commercial services

• Distance Education Document Delivery Service at U
  of Iowa
• Statewide courier service for over 200
  institutions in Florida Library Information
  Network

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Reserve Materials

• Supplementary materials
• Accommodation for whole texts and articles as
  well as a variety of media
• Password-protected for limited access and fair use

• ERes at many colleges and universities such as
  San Diego State U
• Audio and video streamed reserves from New York U

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Electronic Content

• Ebooks and online articles
• Available in many formats
• Accessible remotely via proxy servers
• Digitization projects and collections

• netLibrary collection of Texshare consortium
• JSTOR and Science Direct
• Digital Libraries Initiative of the Library of
  Congress

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Instruction

• Traditional and new skills
• Active learning required
• Online tutorials and subject based guides
• Partnership between course faculty and librarians

• TILT (Texas Information Literacy Tutorial) at U
  of Texas
• SourceFinder from Virginia Military Institute
• UWired at U of Washington

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Information Management Tools

• Architected systems for managing and archiving
  student and program content
• Collections of specialized content often
  developed from local interest and need

• Online Archive of California from the California
  Digital Library
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and
  Dissertations at Virginia Tech

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Current Offerings

• Does your institutions library
• currently offer each of the mentioned services
• at a satisfactory level for distance learners?

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Requirements

• Administrative participation with policies and
  contracts
• Technical support to manage and maintain new
  technologies
• Staff training to accommodate provision of new
  services
• Collaboration with departments and other student
  services
• Seamless integration of library resources and
  services into the overall distance learning
  program and related student services

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General Models

• Central Michigan U Library and College of
  Extended Learning created a model partnership for
  distance education including library services
• U of Wyoming recently published article about new
  strategic plan to offer all library services on
  equitable level for all students, including
  distance learners
• Jones International U allows option to purchase
  the level of complimentary library services needed

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Three General Features

• 1. Convenience
• 2. Personalization
• 3. Collaboration

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Thank you.

• Now, we welcome your questions
• and comments based
• upon this presentation.