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Date: January 24,
2005 To: Rapid City
Public Library Trustees From: Briefing: RCPL
support to Distance Education students This information is
being provided to the Board for input on support services to distance
education students. Distance education students were defined as those not
enrolled in a higher education program within a five mile radius of A review of
literature on the topic of public library support to distance (online)
students, found an overwhelming amount of information on distance learning
college library involvement in distance learning, but little information on
what public libraries were doing. There was also little to show that
universities considered public libraries as one of a primary support for
their students. A literature review
on the topic of “life long learning” offered a great deal on what public
library support and participation was. Public libraries offered programs,
classes etc. For the most part, public
libraries offered distance or lifelong learners:
All of these services are currently provided by RCPL. The public’s
expectation generally appears to be that public libraries will supply the
information they need to complete their courses, even if those resources are
provided by the institution they are getting the degree from. Reasons stated
were:
(Source: Library services for distance learning by Alexander L.
Slade, 2004. http://uviclib.uvic.ca/dls/bib3d.html) With that in mind,
it appears that the distance students did not differentiate between the
public library and the library at the university from which they were getting
their degree. There was an in-depth discussion on how public libraries were
responding to this perception. In some cases, the universities were
partnering with public libraries for a reciprocal agreement to allow their
students to use the public facility. In fact, many of the sites reviewed
encouraged their students to use the public library for their information
needs. This generally was only a line or two in that institution’s Distance
Learning FAQ page. An additional review
was done of 41 public and private university web sites, to determine their
policies for allowing non-enrolled people to use the university library. The majority of those universities do make
accommodations for non-students to use their facilities, although levels of
access allowed to them vary. RCPL does encourage patrons wanting to use
materials at local universities to utilize those collections directly for two
reasons. Cost efficiency and academic librarians trained in the access and
use of the materials. |
