Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, have recently emerged as a disruptive pedagogy gaining rapid momentum in higher education. In some states, proposed legislations would accredit MOOCs to provide college-credit courses in the name of cost saving, efficiency and access. While debates rage regarding the place of MOOCs in higher education, some…

"Sense of place" no longer applies only to the physical library. All students are distance learners to one extent or another, and all distance services must be considered as a single virtual learning commons. Librarians at Bucks County (PA) Community College implement and integrate current teaching, learning, virtual reference, and mobile access…

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an integral tool in enhancing library services worldwide. This article looks at ways technology is utilized at Massey University to bridge the gap between distance students and traditional library services. There are a variety of software providers, formats and implementation practices…

This article summarizes discussions on listservs. Topic covered are circulation policies regarding patrons from other colleges, the shelving of sacred books, laptop circulation, Ariel vs email attachment for interlibrary loan, best software for remote instruction, paper copies of ereserves, interlibrary loan privileges for alumni and policies…

Sooner Xpress service arose out of a need to improve and expand services for library users at the University of Oklahoma. After several years of service for our distance education students, a decision was made to expand those services to include all campus and local users in an effort to streamline retrieval services in the library. Both…

The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) serves a dispersed patron base, and its library has developed, over time, a circulation system for distributing physical research materials to its patrons throughout the United States. This article discusses the development of this system and its associated interface/database management system…

Reviews the use of computerized monitoring to study the behavior of remote users of online library resources. Highlights include synchronous and asynchronous information transfer; behavioral traits of remote users; challenges to library services; the needs and wants of remote users; academic libraries and distance education; and…

This paper discusses ways in which the Queensland University of Technology (Australia) has freed up resources, particularly staffing resources, in order to focus attention on activities that add value to the academic process. Vendor partnership with Blackwell's Library Supply company for selection, acquisition, cataloging, and end processing of…

This paper presents a program overview of library services to distance education students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). In the fall of 1997, a survey on use of library services was sent to students in an interdepartmental master's program. Questions focused on the use of the library online catalog, the World Wide Web, and the…

Presents 12 articles that are abbreviated versions of presentations at the Wilson Symposium on the Future of Public Libraries. Highlights include rural library needs; community needs; librarians' role in planning for community change; cooperating to meet specialized needs; future staffing requirements; distance education; library technology; the…

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the development of school library media programs in the United States and the emerging roles of school library media specialists from a historical perspective and to make inferences about the future of the profession at the edge of the 21st century. The study was divided into six historical…

The growth of telecommunications technology for distance learning in the Cyberspace Age has opened many options for studying off-campus from home or office from remote and sparsely populated communities. Higher education is exploring this modern version of correspondence courses with the goal of increasing their student enrollment as well as…

Provides annotations of 29 journal articles and six book reviews on a variety of topics related to technology in libraries, including collection development, computer-assisted instruction, databases, distance education, ergonomics, hardware, information technology, interlibrary loan and document supply, Internet, online catalogs, preservation,…

This paper explores the challenges and opportunities facing libraries as they evolve into the electronic networked environment, and looks at options for libraries in the year 2000 and beyond. The internationally networked environment has fundamentally changed the way in which people acquire and use information resources and services. The paper…

This selective bibliography of books for librarians includes titles regarding academic libraries; administration and personnel; bibliographic instruction; cataloging and classification; children's and young adult services; collection development; copyright; customer service; distance education; electronic libraries; fund raising; government…