Off‐Campus Library Services: A Conference Report
| Published date | 01 July 2006 |
| Pages | 22-24 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050610692280 |
| Date | 01 July 2006 |
| Author | Linda Frederiksen |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
Off-Campus Library Services:
A Conference Report
Linda Frederiksen
22 LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 6 2006, pp. 22-23, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050610692280
Meeting for the 12th time since its
inception in 1982, the Off-Campus
Library Services Conference, sponsored
by Central Michigan University
Libraries and Off-Campus Programs,
met in Savannah, Georgia, on April 26-
28, 2006. According to organizers, the
biennial event is a forum bringing
together ``librarians, administrators,
and educators to discuss, study,
demonstrate, and champion the
technology, techniques, and theories of
providing library services for students
not pursuing their education on a
campus.'' The three-day event drew
approximately 260 attendees and
included workshops, discussion groups,
concurrent papers and an electronic
research showcase.
To say it's all about technology is an
understatement for those involved with
distance education. From early toll-free
telephone numbers and fax machines to
course management software, virtual
reference, and weblogs, technology can
be, as one presenter stated, both the
bane and blessing for users trying to
navigate through a highly decentralized
learning environment. Attendees at the
Off-Campus Library Services Conference
used the event to deepen the
understanding of the ways that
technology has transformed distance
teaching and learning.
Previewing several recurring themes
that emerged during the conference, the
event began with an afternoon of one-
and two-hour facilitated and panel
discussions where such diverse topics
as student and faculty assessment,
virtual reference, copyright; interlibrary
loan, extension sites, and instruction
were addressed. Rob Morrison, current
chair of the Association of College and
Research Libraries (ACRL) Distance
Learning Section (DLS) Guidelines
Committee, led an interactive workshop
soliciting comments and input for a
proposed major revision of a document
giving guidance to those setting up and
administering academic programs and
support services for remote users, the
Guidelines for Distance Learning
Library Services.
In the opening general session
featured speaker Marshall Keys
officially kicked off the conference
with an energetic and thought-
provoking presentation titled ``Lost in
translation: what today's trends show
about tomorrow's libraries.'' Keys, past
executive director of NELINET, gave
numerous examples of ubiquitous and
emerging technologies that may have
significant impact on libraries of all
types in the next five to ten years.
Beginning by stating that, while users
continue to connect to each other and
external sources through multimedia
devices, the new paradigm is not that
everything is on the Internet but rather
that everything is or soon will be on the
phone. For distance librarians who have
long communicated with remote users
by phone, e-mail or internet connection,
this statement did not come as a
complete surprise. However, Keys then
asked the audience to consider what the
library would look when the browser
window was no longer the medium. He
exhorted attendees to continue to
extend the thinking about services and
resources in the larger terms of online
communities, personalization and
portability. According to Keys, the
issue for libraries is not to think in terms
of what technology we have but rather
what technological tools and devices
our potential users have and adapt
accordingly.
Organized under the general theme
areas of collaboration, teaching and
learning, research and electronic
information and delivery, 29 concurrent
papers were delivered on a variety of
topics. Presenters represented small and
large public and private institutions and
included main and regional campuses,
all offering some form of distance
education. The papers featured practical
tips and techniques as well as a growing
body of research centering on distance
education practice and theory.
Jessica Mussell is the Instructional
and Resource Sharing Librarian at
Royal Roads University in Victoria,
British Columbia, primarily an online,
graduate-level institution with a
commitment to both electronic and
mobile learning resources that can be
accessed anytime and anywhere. With
increasing adoption of small handheld
devices as information appliances, the
library explored the use of personal
digital assistants (PDAs) as a mode of
access to online resources. In this study,
titled ``Designing library services for
the PDA,'' a pilot collection of PDA-
accessible library resources were
identified and demonstrated to a small
focus group. Enabling applications such
as Microsoft's Remote Display Control
for projecting PDA displays on a data
projector, competing operating
standards, wireless infrastructure,
availability of content, and usability
emerged as the major themes. Despite
the challenges of using these devices
for research, the growing popularity of
personal and mobile technologies may
require libraries to offer a new delivery
platform for services, while also
selecting and supporting resources for
multiple operating systems.
``Blogging it into them: Weblogs in
information literacy instruction,''
presented by Priscilla Coulter and Lani
Draper discussed the use of blogs as
supplements to information literacy
instruction and library outreach. After
reviewing current uses of blogs in
libraries nationwide, the speakers spoke
about their decision to utilize weblogs
as a means of information literacy
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