[WEB4LIB] Re: University of Phoenix/"distance" library services

[thom]

On Tue, 17 Nov 1998, Mike Mitchell wrote:

> It's nice to see some official support of the value of libraries in
> education. I think online resources are great but I'd hate to see the depth
> of printed resources relegated to obscurity. I'm afraid there is a trend
> toward this in community colleges too though, especially at so-called
> satellite campuses. I worked at a community college a few years ago where
> the administration felt the library was basically only necessary for
> accreditation. They've got a satellite now that has no library to speak of,
> just a T-1 line. Ugh!

Completely ignoring whether you like or dislike Phoenix, what happens in a
total distance ed environment? It is very obvious that total distance
education is here to stay and will exist in at least some cases not just
with no physical library but no physical school building and/or physical
books at all. So why is the physical building sacrosanct? 

Distance doesn't relegate printed resources to obscurity but it does
store them in the bit-brary where they are printed as needed. Granted some
material isn't online but this just means that this material is very
unaccessible to some folks. For folks learning at a distance in cyberspace
one of the least useful 'places' is the physical library building and the 
printed resources.

If your audience and user exists in 'spaces' but not 'places' than their
needs will not be meet with physical things: books, buildings or bodies.

Thoughts?

--Thom