The final section will present main findings from this research within the context of the initial research questions. Suggestions will be made for future research and implications for practitioners and educators.
What Services do Academic Libraries Offer to Distance Education Students?
The first research question asked about the actual services being offered by academic library web sites at the time this study was conducted. This data was primarily obtained by conducting a content analysis. Further corrob- oration was found from interviews and student surveys.Niemi et al. (1998) spoke about what services are needed, but this study has now taken a further step and quantified exactly what is being offered and what students want.
Of those services offered to distance education students, the one key re- source that was available 100% of the time is full-text resources. This con- sistency shows the state of libraries and the importance of such features. In less than a decade since the development of the web, library web sites, and full-text resources have become standard. Following close behind this were online catalogs (88.2%) and links to online reference materials (88.2%).
Students confirmed the importance and high use of full-text resources, resulting in the highest mean score of 4.87 out of 5 with 88.2% stating it was very important, 7.4% important, 2.9% neutral, and 0 unimportant or very unimportant. During open-ended questions, students’ negative comments focused on not having enough full-text resources.
On the other extreme, the items found 0% of the time were web pages that detailed strategies for the effective support of resources in support of dis- tance learning, and the capacity to make video conferencing available for reference and research purposes. These items were found during preliminary study construction, but were not found within the sample of web sites
chosen. FAQ (17.6%) and links to evaluation of resources (5.9%) were also at the bottom of the list.
As for students, the FAQ section reported the lowest mean of 3.42 out of 5. This came about with 16.2% stating it was very important, 36.8% im- portant, 27.9% neutral, 8.8% unimportant, and 2.9% very unimportant.
Close to the low response for the FAQ is the Feedback Form at a mean of 3.49. It is also interesting to note that even the lowest response questions from the student surveys were still remarkably high.
Furthermore, there was a broad range of features found throughout the web sites analyzed. The highest was a total of 31 items at both the University of Illinois and Ferris State University, and the lowest was a total of 6 at Touro University International. It also showed that there was no overall major grouping or standard as there appeared to be an even distribution from high to low with no large gap or jump from one extreme to the next.
How Does this Vary Depending on the Amount of Distance Education that the Institutions Offer?
Probably the most important finding in this research was that the types of library services offered to distance education students were not reflective of the degree to which distance education programs are offered on those cam- puses. The deciding factor was the size of the institution. A Spearman cor- relation of 0.618 between size of the institutions student body and the sum of their selected web site features was found. The larger the school (and, therefore, the larger the library’s budget and staff) the more likely that they offer a greater number of services. However, this is also a disheartening outcome, as more and more institutions are offering distance education courses and programs. One would like to believe that institutions offer services and provide the framework for students based on student needs. It appears that many institutions are jumping into distance education unpre- pared. Surprisingly, institutions that were primarily distance education in- stitutions did not have the strongest library web sites. The strongest were traditional institutions that offered degrees from a distance followed by those that offered only individual courses from a distance. This was then followed by the primarily distance education institutions and, finally, those that are not yet offering any distance education.
This conflict between mission and services was uncovered statistically using a Spearman correlation. The correlation between the amount of dis- tance education offered and the overall sum of items found was 0.076.
Additionally, there was also no significant correlation between the amount of distance education offered and the size of the institution (0.238). This means that just because an institution offers distance education courses and degrees does not mean that the library has necessarily increased or improved their services to meet distance learner needs.
It was found, however, that the more that distance education was offered, the more likely that certain features were available on the web site: circu- lating books delivered to the student, reference available via e-mail, and interlibrary loan materials mailed directly to the student’s home instead of having users pick them up in person. As for the size of the institution, the larger the institution the more likely that it would provide the following services: books could be renewed online by student, reference librarians would be available for consulting, bibliographic instructions classes were offered in one form or another, bibliographic instruction tutorials were available online, and synchronous chat software was in use for reference transactions. And in general the overall total sum of web site features was found to be higher at larger institutions.
However, it was interesting to note that during the interviews, each li- brarian felt that they were meeting student needs well. Each institution seems to have an apparent niche. Although different, each library provides a unique collection of services to meet their students’ needs.
How are Distance Education Student Needs being met? In what Ways are the Needs of these Students Assessed? How are Decisions made for
Determining what Services are Provided?
This next section details student needs, and how it is determined what those needs are. It is broken down into the following areas: equivalence, needs assessment, instruction, and computer interfaces and navigational design.
Equivalence
Equivalence is the idea that distance learners should have equivalent library services to those offered students on campus. During interviews for this study each of the librarians stated that this is their library’s goal. Students responded during surveys that they still want more full-text online. It seems that they will probably never be 100% satisfied until 100% of what they are looking for is online.
The greatest weakness as reported by students is that not everything is online, although they did speak up about other deficiencies they felt strongly about. Several responded that they had the following complaints:
difficulty with searches
confusing and non-user-friendly sites
not enough personal support, especially with time zone differences delivery, access and support is not fast enough
technical problems such as cumbersome logins additional costs for delivery to distant students not enough instruction
distance just makes it more difficult overall site is sometimes slow
Some of the more notable comments about what students would like changed included a need for more help and instruction, more full-text re- sources, better search engines and organization, and individualized assist- ance.
Other student comments included lack of guidance, difficulty in obtaining all types of resources since everything is not full-text, and a greater need for personal support. Librarians want to offer equivalent services, but require money, staff, and institutional support and collaboration. Determining user needs varies considerably from institution to institution, with some librar- ians making more decisions on their own, and others acting as part of larger committees.
This study has shown that, while it is true that distance learners need the same services as other learners, students in these programs are adamant about weaknesses in delivery and access and support issues, and do need a larger array of full-text resources. Libraries also need to provide additional staff and money for creating and supporting those services. There appears to be a disconnect between what some libraries are offering and what some students are expecting. Distance students may need the same services, but providing them requires additional resources and development.
Needs Assessment
Another common theme during interviews was the idea that student feed- back is important, and that librarians need to be proactive in getting it.
Paper forms, electronic forms, and other passive forms of collecting opin- ions seemed to be ineffective. Librarians need to get out to the classrooms,
talk with the faculty and students, and basically find a way to force dialog with those involved in these programs. Students agreed that these electronic forms were not important although they did seem to be open to providing feedback. A more personal approach such as using focus groups may open up dialog between users and librarians.
The FAQ section reported the lowest mean of 3.42 for questions they were asked. This came about with 16.2% stating that FAQ’s were very important, 36.8% important, 27.9% neutral, 8.8% unimportant, and 2.9%
very unimportant. Close to the low response for the FAQ is the feedback form at a mean of 3.49. This is an interesting find in that it corroborates the interviews. Librarians noted that the feedback form was seldom used, and students noted that they did not find the feedback form that effective or useful. Students did not state how they could make their needs known otherwise.
From the statistical findings and the interviews with librarians, it is ev- ident that a more formal needs assessment program is needed throughout many libraries. Although many libraries do have mechanisms in place to determine what services to offer and what patrons want, much of this is done informally or without any real assessment program. Waiting for com- ments via a suggestion box or a web-based comment form provide little information. There is a great deal of literature that speaks about assessment in general and assessment in terms of libraries (Colborn & Cordell, 1998;
Hiller, 2001;Niyonsenga & Bizimana, 1996). Assessment can be conducted via paper surveys or web-based surveys. Focus groups can be formed, and formal committees within the library and within the college or university can also provide feedback. This study shows the importance of formal needs assessment. The problem lies not in the lack of knowledge of needs assess- ment, but in actual implementation and awareness.
Instruction
From an instructional design point of view, it is clear that, as designers of services and web sites, librarians need to continually analyze the instruction that they provide. Good instruction begins with an analysis of the audience, students in this case. Design of instruction takes place, followed by program development, and then actual use. Finally, evaluations are conducted, and the entire process is analyzed again and modified.
It was interesting that an increased need for instruction did not appear from the content analysis results or the survey statistics. However, it was
very evident that it is an important issue when participants are allowed to speak freely within interviews and open-ended questions on the surveys.
Both librarians and students felt that personal assistance and user instruc- tion are even more important, not less, as students move further away, and as technology increases. This shows that a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches to data collection is important in order to ensure that all viewpoints are expressed. As a student wrote on the survey, ‘‘the insti- tution does not provide appropriate instruction and guidance for maximiz- ing the benefit for distance education students.’’
Students consistently wrote that more personal assistance was needed.
Even though technology has been rapidly improving and interfaces have been simplified, the amount of technology and the multitude of databases available can be overwhelming. Students need support to find out how to most effectively use library resources. Students within this research study stated that they have had difficulty with searches and that accessing re- sources can be ‘‘overwhelming for new users.’’ By emphasizing personal assistance to make learning how to use library resources relevant to the student, a constructivist approach becomes evident. Even though it may be easier to post web pages and provide canned instruction for distance stu- dents, it becomes clear that with the changing technology and more infor- mation available, adult students still need personal assistance. Formal instruction that is tied to the student’s research questions and personal interests makes for much more useful instruction. By being able to make connections to their own interests, a constructivist approach helps students to learn better. Additionally, different learning styles add another layer of complexity to instruction, requiring that multiple approaches to library in- struction be used to reach all students.
One of the main issues that arose from this study was the problem with reaching distance students for library instruction. This came across both from the students and the librarians. Wiggins (1999) states that highly structured instruction in forms such as video, workbooks, web pages, com- puter assisted instruction, or pathfinders is not enough. Students need to take that information one step further with individualized support in order to better understand why they are doing something instead of just how. The key is to balance rules, facts, and information that can be transmitted easily, with additional support and communication. That may be in the form of face-to-face workshops, phone, e-mail, chat, asynchronous discussions, or with new technologies as they are developed. It seems clear that many li- braries are still struggling with how to best reach their students and need to use appropriate instructional design techniques for ideal instruction.
The use of new tools such as asynchronous computer mediated commu- nication (CMC) enables all members of a group to be in touch. Just as these tools are widely used in distance education courses, they can also be utilized for library instruction and assistance. Library instruction and library ref- erence requires similar types of two-way interaction and feedback to ensure that both librarian and student understand what the other is thinking and that the information to be found meets the needs of the search. As adult learners, our library patrons have a great deal of personal experience to draw upon, like how to make decisions for themselves, and they often have family responsibilities that keep them busy. This has direct consequences to the types of library services and support that will be preferred.
Computer Interfaces and Navigational Designs
There was a very noticeable need for improved navigation, organization, and interface design of library web sites. Obviously there has been a great deal of improvement since the first library web sites were created, and it seems that most libraries are continually revising their structures each and every year.
However, there is still room for improvement. Students have asked for im- proved interfaces and easier searching. Although some of this is out of the hands of librarians, as commercial vendors have all but taken over the actual databases themselves, there is still room to continue teaching students how to work with what is available. Furthermore, information of database options and the structure of the library web site itself can still be improved upon. This brings us back to user instruction, better organized library web sites, and onscreen instructions and navigation guides before they even connect to the databases. As one student commented: ‘‘Making remote access easier to un- derstand to connect to the library from your own personal computer. The instructions are confusing and most of the time, I can’t get it to work.’’
Students had responded that they have had difficulty with searches, that library sites are confusing and not user friendly, that there is not enough personal support especially with time zone differences, that delivery, access and support is not fast enough, and that there have been technical problems such as cumbersome logins.
Practitioners and educators should take advantage of work already done on learning styles and web page design (Holtze, 2000), as well as information retrieval theory (Buckland, 1988). Tolppanen et al. (2000) examined the web sites of 133 academic libraries from medium-sized universities. They determined that the navigational and design aspects of library web sites need
to be improved, and greater use of online instruction, tutorials, and virtual tours would be worthwhile endeavors to supplement traditional face-to-face bibliographic instruction.
This research has not only confirmed what others have said about nav- igational issues, but spoken directly to student issues in regards to the overwhelming number of choices they now have to make, and how an in- creased number of databases makes it difficult for students to determine where to start.
Future Research Directions and Implications for Practitioners There are several areas that now appear to offer additional research op- portunities. The first area is on database and full-text resources for distance education students. In this paper it was discovered that databases and full- text resources are now common. However, it seems that there could be quite a large difference between institutions. Future research could look into both quantity and quality of full-text offerings.
Additional questions have arisen as to instruction of distance education students in terms of library services. What is the most effective way of reaching these students for bibliographic instruction? Both librarians and students asked for additional interaction. There are many different ap- proaches. These include web based independent instruction, face-to-face class sessions, interactive television, and personalized service through e-mail, chat, and phone. This is an area that librarians have not studied in school and have, therefore, had to learn on the job.
Another question deals with student ages, backgrounds, and generational differences. How do these differences impact how they use and perceive the library and the type of instruction and assistance they want? Are different techniques going to work better for one group compared to others? Will a variety of assistance means have to be offered?
What is it that students are actually using? We learned the types of serv- ices they want, but how many of them use their public library or a closer college library instead? How much of their research consists of using web sites as opposed to subscription databases with peer-reviewed articles? In terms of faculty usage, how much library work do faculty require of their students and how many of them simply provide students with course packets and other materials?
Furthermore, how can we get various areas of the campus to work to- gether better? Librarians interviewed discussed frustration with other