Shea & Boser (2001) stated that, at the turn of the century, approximately 70 percent of American universities had offered at least one course online. They predict that by 2005, nearly all the universities in America will offer an online course.
Access Services in the 21st Century 75
Although educational institutions create courses and programs for distance learners, they often forget the support component that students and faculty consider critical. Students involved in distance education courses are unlikely to walk into the sponsoring institution’s library for instruction on how to use the resources or how to use electronic reserves and interlibrary loan. To properly support distance education students, remote access to the library is essential.
The virtual classroom needs not only a virtual library but also access to the paper resources. The library must be able to deliver materials to students, assist them in finding alternate sources for physical resources, and authenticate and verify student information. This is especially important for accessing databases that are limited to currently enrolled students that often come under the auspices of the library. Students, whether distance learners or local, need to communicate with the library to make sure that they have computer access. Help desks, chat rooms, email programs, live reference, and enhanced online catalogs, all contribute to the support of the distance learning programs. In addition, many programs request reciprocal borrowing privileges for their students located far from the originating campus. Libraries are establishing mail services to their distance learning students, and when that is not possible, direct students to local libraries to take advantage of the interlibrary loan system. For a more in-depth discussion on distance learning, see Chapter 10 in this volume.
CONCLUSION
Libraries must provide the services to their patrons while balancing budgets, space, and user needs. The virtual and the physical library have become one, and it is important that the library make the combination of these two units seamless. The future of electronic reserves and interlibrary loan is still entangled with copyright and intellectual property issues. Copyright notices are standard fare on all electronic materials stating access restrictions. Further, if payments are necessary to access specific resources, it is incumbent upon the library to ensure that policies are in place to ensure payments.
FUTURE TRENDS
Two critical issues remain unresolved in access services in this new century.
First, with spiraling subscription and increasing material costs, how will academic libraries create a more effective method of providing information to their faculties and researchers? A closer relationship between collection development librarians and the Interlibrary Loan department is essential. Collection development decisions
TE AM FL Y
Team-Fly®
76 Burke
that affect the information needs of researchers require ILL to supply the missing resources quickly. Armed with usage studies from interlibrary loan and electronic reserve software applications and input from other departments, collection man- agement can be more precise in obtaining important resources with dwindling funds.
The second challenge focuses on accountability for library support for students in the era of distance learning. For example, when a student is enrolled in a distance learning course, which library is responsible for providing library services - the geographically closest library or the one affiliated with the educational institution offering the distance learning course? It is important to take these factors into account when developing service policies for those distance learners who are far from their ‘home’ institutions but still require services.
REFERENCES
Association of Research Libraries (1996). Transforming Libraries, Issue 1:
Electronic reserves. Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries.
Bosseau, D. L. (1993). Anatomy of a small step forward: the electronic reserve book room at San Diego State University. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 18(1):366-8.
Boucher, V. (1984). Interlibrary loan practices handbook. Chicago, IL: Ameri- can Library Association, p.2.
Gyeszly, S. D. & Allen, G. (1991). Effects of online periodical indexes on interlibrary loan services and collection development. Journal of Interli- brary Loan & Information Supply, 1(3):39-48.
Harper, G. (2002). Copyright in the library. The University of Texas System.
[Electronic Resource]. Retrieved 10/09/2001 from http://www3.utsystem.edu/
ogc/intellectualproperty /.
Jackson, M. E. (1997). Measuring the performance of interlibrary loan and document delivery services: Bimonthly Report on Research Library Issues and Actions. Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries.
Jackson, M. (2000). Interlibrary loan and resource sharing products: An overview of current features and functionality. Chicago: IL: American Library Association. [Also available in Library Technology Reports, 36(6) : Special issue on Interlibrary Loan Products].
Kelsey, A. L. & John M. Cohn, J.M. (1987). The impact of automation on interlibrary loan: one college library’s experience. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 13(7):163-166.
Kemp, T. (2000). When Does Copying Become Illegal Use? — Napster copyright battle may impact text, video, software protection at other content sites.
Internetweek, 284:16.
Access Services in the 21st Century 77
Kriz, H. M., Glover, M. J., & Ford, K. C. (1998). ILLiad: customer-focused interlibrary loan automation. Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information Supply, 8(4): 31-47.
Lutzker, A. (1999). Primer on the digital millennium. [Electronic Resource].
Retrieved 10/09/2001 from http://www.arl.org/info/frn/copy/primer.html Martin, M. & Wolf, M. (1998). Budgeting for information access, Chicago, IL:
American Library Association, p.3.
Moore, M. M. (1990). Compact disk indexing and its effects on activities in an academic library. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 16(5): 291-295.
Roche, M. M. (1993). ARL/RLG interlibrary loan cost study. Washington, D.C.: Association of Research Libraries.
Shaw, S. (1999). Overview of watermarks, fingerprints and digital signatures.
[Electronic Resource]. Retrieved 10/09/2001 from http://www.jtap.ac.uk/
reports/htm/jtap-034.html.
Shea, R. H. & Boser, U. (2001). So where’s the beef?(limits of online learning at college level). U.S. News & World Report, 131(15):44.
United States Copyright Office (1996). Copyright Law of the United States of America and related laws contained in title 17 of the United States Code: Circular 92. Washington, D.C.: The Office.
78 Heron & Gordon