Improving Internet Reference Services to Distance Learners

Citation

du Preez, M. (2006), "Improving Internet Reference Services to Distance Learners", Online Information Review, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 81-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520610650354

Thanks to advances in information and communications technology, distance education has become a very viable option in offering affordable education to all. However, to be really successful it needs the support of a dedicated library service catering for the needs of all students deriving from different kinds of environments and literacy levels, including both information literate and illiterate learners. This very diverse user group makes the provision of a library service to distance learners a daunting task.

The volume is a collection of articles that describe librarians” efforts to provide services for distance learners. It illustrates the service orientation of the library profession to both users and other entities within and beyond their own organisations.

The volume is packed with information on electronic reference services. It also highlights a variety of methods that could be used in teaching and in providing online library instruction. It also is instructive to learn how librarians and faculties can work together to provide an exceptional service to distance learners who might never have the opportunity to visit a university library in person and who have to rely on online courses to acquire an education.

Articles such as “Librarian participation in the online classroom” by Jill Markgraf highlight participation in course management systems such as Blackboard and WebCT, while others describe the creation of online information literacy courses and the collaboration that could exist between the library and the multimedia writing team.

The inclusion of articles such as “Information literacy and the distant student” and “Online tutorials as instruction for distance students” are most valuable, especially when one considers the suggestion by Mulherrin et al. that adult learners are not adequately prepared to use library resources and need assistance to become information literate. Whereas the article “Information literacy and the distant student” addresses issues such as administrative support, student and faculty interaction in the online classroom and outcomes assessment, the article “Online tutorials as instruction for distance students” focuses on web‐based interactive tutorials as a means of providing library instruction to distance learners.

Attention is also paid to the marketing of library services, service delivery in a joint‐use environment, a “lurking librarian” model, library service for distance library school students, and a university‐wide referral service established in the library. Services to specialised student populations such as Firefighter Distance Learners, and Doctor of Pharmacy students are also discussed. The concluding article, “The buck stops where?” by Doris Brown and Kara Malenfant, describes the wider role for the library at DePaul University, and a potentially wider role for other academic libraries.

In a nutshell, Improving Internet Reference Services to Distance Learners shows librarians how to look outside their libraries for ways to deliver the best service possible. It is a great source for distance librarians, and the editors can be congratulated on their work in compiling such a valuable collection.