When considering the future of library services for off-campus or distance education, it is almost impossible to ignore developments in information technology (IT). The two areas are becoming inextricably linked, and a growing number of librarians, educators and administrators now regard IT as the solution to many of the problems involved in providing library support to students who are located away from the main campus. The hope is that these students will be less dependent on libraries as they become able to conduct literature searches from their homes or offices by accessing library catalogues, periodical databases, full-text journals and other resources available through the Internet. Some authors go as far as to predict that these students will become self-sufficient when they start to download full-text materials through the Internet or use commercial document suppliers to obtain selected periodical articles (e.g. Copeland 1995). Are these expectations realistic and, if so, how soon will we see the effect of these changes? I will attempt to address these questions partially from my knowledge of the literature of off-campus library services, and partially from my experience at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

Authors such as Bazillion and Braun (1995) anticipate that remote access to electronic resources will provide off-campus and distance education students with services equivalent to those available to on-campus students. Examples in the literature indicate that several libraries are already using IT for the benefit of remote users. Pagell (1996) describes the use of desktop video-conferencing for distance reference at Emory University. Bristow and Buechley (1995) discuss reference service by e-mail at Indiana University. Jensen and Sih (1995) report on the use of e-mail and the Internet at two University of California campuses to teach users at their desktops. Schiller (1996) reviews World Wide Web library support for distance learning at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Several "electronic library" projects are reported in the literature. Neuhaus (1995) outlines the regional electronic library project at Southern Cross University. DeBruijn (1995) describes the British Columbia Electronic Library Network and various authors discuss the BIBDEL (Libraries Without Walls) project funded by the Commission of the European Communities (e.g. Brinkley and OFarrell 1995; Wynne 1996).

At the University of Victoria (UVic), we have had a delivery service (INFOLINE) in place for over seventeen years to provide library information and materials to our off-campus students. Based on the requests received from these students through 1995, there was little indication that off-campus students were making use of remote dial-in access to our library systems. This is not surprising, since the remote access service was not well publicized, and users had to pay long distance telephone charges to connect to UVic by modem from outside the city of Victoria. In addition, the use of personal computers and modems by distance students was not common until the mid-1990s. In a 1993 survey co-sponsored by six universities in Western Canada, it was found that only 26% of off-campus students had access to a computer with a modem (Slade 1997). We have found that since our Internet library gateway system was introduced in 1995, interest in remote access has increased. This is partially due to enhanced publicity and information conveyed at bibliographic instruction sessions.

Despite the increased awareness, I predict that it will take several years before UVic off-campus students are fully hooked up to the Internet and able to search independently for information resources. As with many other aspects of distance education, library services are dependent upon and "ride on the coat-tails" of educational programmatic developments. At present, there is no requirement at UVic for off-campus students to have electronic access to the University. Those students who already use electronic resources are doing so primarily because they were motivated to obtain Internet access for other reasons. The staff of INFOLINE is not aware of many students who have purchased computers and/or modems for the specific purpose of conducting bibliographic research for off-campus courses.

Based on the requests received by the INFOLINE service, it is estimated that less than 5% of UVic off-campus students conduct their own literature searches by remote electronic access. This percentage is higher for graduate students since a number of them have Internet access through their place of employment. Another indication of the low use of the Internet is that very few off-campus students are taking advantage of the electronic means of communication available to them. Despite having a well-publicized e-mail address for the INFOLINE service, only 11% of students submit requests in this way. Most prefer to make their requests through our 800 toll-free telephone line or by fax. Judging from the responses received to a query posted on the DISTLIB listserv, similar patterns of usage are evident at other Canadian universities.

The typical distance student at the University of Victoria is a mature female who has family responsibilities and is employed full-time (Parry 1994). Time is important to these people, and it seems that many of them are reluctant to undertake the learning curve required to effectively search library catalogues and various databases for course purposes. I agree with Goodson (1997), who maintains that most off-campus students would prefer to have literature searches conducted for them by librarians, simply because librarians can do the searches better and faster. For these reasons, it seems reasonable to suggest that distance students generally will be slow to embrace and use information technologies unless they are required to do so by their educational institutions.

Another important factor affecting students' future use of IT is access to the Internet. There are significant developments taking place with telephone and cable companies that will influence this arena. There are clear indications in the media that Internet access will soon be integrated into home entertainment systems and will eventually become commonplace in the average household. Assuming this does occur, students both on and off-campus will have the ability to conduct information searches from their homes if they choose to do so. It is likely, however, that this expanded Internet access will initially be available mostly in cities and large urban centers. Currently, approximately half of UVic's off-campus students live in rural areas, where Internet access will be slow to take hold. We may see a class system developing among distance learners: urbanites will have high-speed connections to the World Wide Web and ready access to information resources, while students located in rural areas will remain dependent on local libraries or a library delivery service from campus until such time as it is economically feasible for cable or telephone companies to run high-speed data transmission lines into the average household, or until Internet access by satellite becomes widely available.

In addition to the requirements of the institution and developments in the home entertainment and communications industries, the following factors will also influence the off-campus students' future use of IT:

* The provision of clear, detailed instructions to the students on how to obtain remote access to the information resources available through their home institution. This includes the set-up of modems, software required, configuration details, access privileges, and where to get help.

* The availability of low cost or no cost access to electronic resources at the home institution.

* The availability of appropriate computer resources and access privileges at local educational centers for those students who do not have the necessary equipment and software at their homes or offices.

* The provision of instruction on how to conduct effective searches of electronic products.

Assuming that more and more off-campus students will have access to the Internet, what does this mean for future library services? It seems clear that the librarian's role in this context will shift to one of facilitator/instructor, rather than provider of information. It is not difficult to envision a time within the next few years when librarians on campus will be providing real-time assistance to users at remote locations. The capability already exists for a librarian and a remote student to communicate by audio or video conferencing and work simultaneously on the same computer screen. Examples in the cited literature indicate that some libraries are already moving in this direction, although e-mail is currently the most common means of communication in this scenario.

The next five years will see a continuation of traditional off-campus library services combined with a steady growth of student independence in information access. We will also see the rise of commercial information brokers who, for a fee, will deliver customized information to the user's computer or fax machine. These brokers will be in competition with libraries and will appeal to those students who place a high value on their personal time due to family and work responsibilities. Unless motivated otherwise by the educational institution, many students will look for the easiest way possible to obtain information for course purposes. It is up to us as librarians to decide what role we will play in the distance education of the future.

References

Bazillion, Richard J., and Connie Braun. Academic Libraries as High-Tech Gateways: A Guide to Design and Space Decisions. Chicago: American Library Association, 1995.

Brinkley, Monica, and Jack O'Farrell. "Delivery of Library Services to Distance Education Students: The BIBDEL Research Project at Dublin City University Library." The Electronic Library 13, no. 6 (1995): 539-546.

Bristow, Ann, and Mary Buechley. "Academic Reference Service Over E-Mail: An Update." College & Research Libraries News 56, no. 7 (1995): 459-462.

Copeland, Lynn. Review of Library Services for Off-Campus and Distance Education: The Second Annotated Bibliography, by Alexander L. Slade and Marie A. Kascus. Journal of Distance Education 10, no. 2 (1995): 119-121.

deBruijn, Deb. "The British Columbia Electronic Library Network - Affordable Innovation." Feliciter 41, no. 11/12 (1995): 32-36.

Goodson, Carol. "Putting the 'service' back in library service." College & Research Libraries News 58, no. 3 (1997): 186-187.

Jensen, Ann, and Julie Sih. "Using E-Mail and the Internet to Teach Users at Their Desktops." Online 19, no. 5 (1995) : 82-86.

Neuhaus, John. "The Regional Electronic Library Project at Southern Cross University." In Access Through Open Learning: With a Major Focus on Networked Learning, edited by A. Ellis and J. Burton. [Southern Cross University] Occasional Papers in Open Learning 5 (1995): 75-79.

Pagell, Ruth A. "The Virtual Reference Librarian: Using Desktop Videoconferencing for Distance Reference." The Electronic Library 14, no. 1 (1996): 21-26.

Parry, A. J. The Part-Time Adult Learner: Characteristics, Needs and Barriers to Learning: A Study of Part-Time Adult Learners at the University of Victoria. Victoria, B. C.: Division of Continuing Studies, University of Victoria, 1994

Schiller, Nancy. "World Wide Web Library Support for Distance Learning at the State University of New York at Buffalo." MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship 4, no. 1 (1996): 25-37. [http://wings.buffalo.edu/publications/mcjrnl/v4n1/schiller.html]

Slade, Alexander L. "Funding Off-Campus Library Services Through Alternative Sources: Expanding the Infrastructure to Include Fee-Paying Clients." In The Sixth Off-Campus Library Services Conference Proceedings: Kansas City, Missouri, October 6 -8, 1993, compiled by C. J. Jacob. (Mount Pleasant, MI: Central Michigan University, 1993), 251-266.

Slade, Alexander L. "Distance Learners and Library Use in Western Canada: The Findings of an Inter-University Survey." In Library Services to Distance Learners in the Commonwealth, edited by E. F. Watson and N. Jagannathan. (Vancouver, BC: The Commonwealth of Learning, 1997), 61-70.

Wynne, Peter M. "Experimentation With Electronic Document Delivery in the BIBDEL Project at the University of Central Lancashire." The Electronic Library 14, no. 1 (1996): 13-20.

Alexander L. Slade
University of Victoria
E-mail: als@uvic.ca

Alexander (Sandy) Slade is Program Director of Continuing Studies Library Services at the University of Victoria. He is responsible for managing library services for the University's off-campus and distance education students as well as fee-based services for non-university clientele. Slade is a member of the Canadian Library Association Interest Group on Distance Learning and the Extended Campus Library Services Section of ACRL. In addition to serving on and chairing committees in these groups, he has coordinated workshops, conducted several research projects, and authored numerous papers in this area. He is also coauthor of two annotated bibliographies titled Library Services for Off-Campus and Distance Education, the most recent one published 1996 by Libraries Unlimited. Slade has recently returned from Australia where he spent six months on a job exchange at Deakin University, one of the largest distance education providers in that country.