University of Phoenix/"distance" library services

[Mike Mitchell]

At 05:41 PM 11/17/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>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? ...

It's not the building, it's the contents and the added value offered by
professional librarians.

>
>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.

Yes, my point exactly. Until a lot more printed material is digitized and
the technology becomes more "reading friendly" the content and quality of
distance learning will remain more superficial than that of traditional
education. I would hate to think that my understanding of sociological
theory was based on a few web pages of critical analysis rather than reading
from original sources and some rather lengthy texts. Same with Theories of
classification.

>
>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.

And those needs will be met online? Is that the need for a thorough
comprehension of an area of intellectual interest or the need for an
official piece of paper? In my opinion, those users need to occupy space in
a place of education surrounded by all the artifacts and tools of
educational culture, including real, thick, dense books. Nor can the
collegial academic atmosphere be replaced with a hypertext chat room.



Mike Mitchell
Tech Services Librarian/System Administrator
Dittlinger Memorial Library
New Braunfels, TX 
mdm at nbpl.lib.tx.us