The "Guidelines" delineate the elements necessary to achieving these ends. The "Guidelines" adhere to the standards of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Higher Education Standards for distance education.

The "Guidelines" assume the following precepts:

· Access to adequate library services and resources is essential for the attainment of superior academic skills in post-secondary education, regardless of where students, faculty, and programs are located. Members of the distance learning community are entitled to library services and resources equivalent to those provided for students and faculty in traditional campus settings.
· The instilling of lifelong learning skills through information literacy instruction in academic libraries is a primary outcome of higher education. Such preparation is of equal necessity for the distance learning community as it is for those on the traditional campus.
· Traditional on-campus library services themselves cannot be stretched to meet the library needs of distance learning students and faculty who face distinct and different challenges involving library access and information delivery. Special funding arrangements, proactive planning, and promotion are necessary to deliver equivalent library services and to maintain quality in distance learning programs. Because students and faculty in distance learning programs frequently do not have direct access to a full range of library services and materials, equitable distance learning library services are more personalized than might be expected on campus.
· The University is responsible, through its chief administrative officers and governance organizations, for funding and appropriately meeting the information needs of its distance learning programs in support of their teaching, learning, and research. This support should provide ready and equivalent library service and learning resources to all its students, regardless of location. This support should be funded separately rather than drawn from the regular funding of the library. In growing and developing institutions, funding should expand as programs and enrollments grow.
· The University recognizes the need for service, management, and technical linkages between the library and other complementary resource bases such as computing facilities, instructional media, and telecommunication centers.
· The University is responsible for assuring that its distance learning library programs meet or exceed national and regional accreditation standards and professional association standards and guidelines.
· The University is responsible for involving the library administration and other personnel in the detailed analysis of planning, developing, and adding or changing of the distance learning program from the earliest stages onward.
· The library has primary responsibility for identifying, developing, coordinating, and providing resources and services, which meet both the standard and the unique information needs of the distance learning community. The librarian, either centrally located or at an appropriate site, should be responsible for ensuring that all requirements are met.
· Effective and appropriate services for distance learning communities may differ from, but must be equivalent to, those services offered on a traditional campus. The requirements of academic programs should guide the library's responses to defined needs. Innovative approaches to the design of special procedures or systems to meet these needs is encouraged.
· When resources and services of unaffiliated local libraries are to be used to support information needs of the distance learning community, the University is responsible, through the library, for the development and periodic review of formal, documented, written agreements with those local libraries. Such resources and services are not to be used simply as substitutes for supplying adequate materials and services by the University.
· The distance learning library program shall have goals and objectives that support the provision of resources and services consistent with the broader institutional mission.

Management
The chief administrative officers and governance organizations of the University bear the fiscal and administrative responsibilities, through the active leadership of the library administration, to fund, staff, and supervise library services and resources in support of distance learning programs. As the principal and direct agent of implementation, the librarian in charge of distance learning should, minimally:

1. access and articulate, on an ongoing basis, both the electronic and traditional library resource needs of the distance learning community, the services provided them, including instruction, and the facilities utilized;
2. prepare a written profile of the distance learning community's information needs;
3. develop a written statement of immediate and long-range goals and objectives for distance learning, which addresses the needs and outlines the methods by which progress can be measured;
4. promote the incorporation of the distance learning goals and objectives into those of the library and of the University as a whole;
5. involve distance learning community representatives, including administrators, faculty, and students, in the formation of the objectives and the regular evaluation of their achievement;
6. assess, using the written profile of needs, the existing library support for distance learning, its availability, and appropriateness;
7. prepare and/or revise collection development and acquisitions policies to reflect the profile of needs;
8. participate with administrators, library subject specialists, and teaching faculty in the curriculum development process and in course planning for distance learning to ensure that appropriate library resources and services are available;
9. promote library support services to the distance learning community;
10. survey regularly distance learning library users to monitor and assess both the appropriateness of their use of services and resources and the degree to which needs are being met;
11. initiate dialog leading to cooperative agreements and possible resource sharing and/or compensation for unaffiliated libraries;
12. develop methodologies for the provision of library materials and services from the library and/or from branch campus libraries or learning centers to the distance learning community;
13. develop partnerships with computing services departments to provide the necessary automation support for the distance learning community; and
14. pursue, implement, and maintain all the preceding in the provision of a facilitating environment in support of teaching and learning.

Additional areas of management responsibility are covered in sections on finances, personnel, facilities, resources, and services.

Finances
The University should provide continuing, optimum financial support for addressing the library needs of the distance learning community sufficient to meet the specifications given in other sections of these "Guidelines," and in accordance with the appropriate ACRL Standards and with available professional, state, or regional accrediting agency specifications. This financing
should be:

1. related to the formally defined needs and demands of the distance learning program;
2. allocated on a schedule matching the University's budgeting cycle;
3. designated and specifically identified within the University's budget and expenditure reporting statements;
4. accommodated to arrangements involving external agencies, including both unaffiliated and affiliated, but independently supported, libraries;
5. sufficient to cover the type and number of services provided the distance learning community; and
6. sufficient to support innovative approaches to meeting needs.



Personnel
Personnel involved in the management and coordination of distance learning library services include the chief administrators and governance organizations of the University and the library administration and other personnel as appropriate, the librarian managing the services, the library subject specialists, additional professional staff in the institution, support staff from a variety of departments, and the administrator(s), librarian(s), and staff from the distance learning sites(s).

The University should provide, either through the library or directly to separately administered units, professional and support personnel with clearly defined responsibilities at the appropriate location(s) and in the number and quality necessary to attain the goals and objectives for library services to the distance learning program including:

1. a librarian to plan, implement, coordinate, and evaluate library resources and services addressing the information needs of the distance learning community;
2. additional professional and/or support personnel on site with the capacity and skills to identify informational needs of distance learning library users and respond to them directly;
3. classification, status, and salary scales for distance learning library personnel that are equivalent to those provided for other comparable library employees while reflecting the compensation levels and cost of living for those residing at distance learning sites; and
4. opportunities for continuing growth and development for distance learning library personnel, including continuing education, professional education, and participation in professional and staff organizations.

Facilities
The University should provide facilities, equipment, and communication links sufficient in size, number, scope, accessibility, and timeliness to reach all students and to attain the objectives of the distance learning programs. Arrangements may vary and should be appropriate to programs offered. Examples of suitable arrangements include but are not limited to:

1. access to facilities through agreements with a non-affiliated library;
2. designated space for consultations, ready reference collections, reserve collections, electronic transmission of information, computerized data base searching and interlibrary loan services, and offices for the library distance learning personnel;
3. a branch or satellite library; and
4. virtual services, such as Web pages, Internet searching, using technology for electronic connectivity.



Resources
The University is responsible for providing or securing convenient, direct physical and electronic access to library materials for distance learning programs equivalent to those provided in traditional settings and in sufficient quality, depth, number, scope, currentness, and formats to:

1. meet the students' needs in fulfilling course assignments (e.g., required and supplemental readings and research papers) and enrich the academic programs;
2. meet teaching and research needs; and
3. accommodate other informational needs of the distance learning community as appropriate.

Programs granting associate degrees should provide access to collections which meet the "Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Guidelines for Two-Year College Learning Resources Programs" and the "Statement on Quantitative Standards." Programs granting baccalaureate or master's degrees should provide access to collections that meet the standards
defined by the "ACRL Standards for College Libraries." Programs offering doctorate degrees should provide access to collections that meet the standards defined by the "ACRL Standards for University Libraries."

Services
The library services offered to the distance learning community should be designed to meet effectively a wide range of informational, bibliographic, and user needs. The following, though not necessarily exhaustive, are essential:

1. reference assistance;
2. computer-based bibliographic and informational services;
3. reliable, rapid, secure access to institutional and other networks including the Internet;
4. consultation services;
5. a program of library user instruction designed to instill independent and effective information literacy skills while specifically meeting the learner-support needs of the distance learning community;
6. assistance with nonprint media and equipment;
7. reciprocal or contractual borrowing, or interlibrary loan services using broadest application of fair use of copyrighted materials;
8. prompt document delivery such as a courier system and/or electronic transmission;
9. access to reserve materials in accordance with copyright fair use policies;
10. adequate service hours for optimum access by users; and
11. promotion of library services to the distance learning community, including documented and updated policies, regulations and procedures for systematic development, and management of information resources.


Documentation
To provide records indicating the degree to which the University is meeting these "Guidelines" in providing library services to its distance learning programs, the library, and when appropriate, the distance learning library units, should have available current copies of at least the following:

1. printed user guides;
2. statements of mission and purpose, policies, regulations, and procedures;
3. statistics on library use;
4. statistics on collections;
5. facilities assessment measures;
6. collections assessment measures;
7. data on staff and work assignments;
8. institutional and internal organization charts;
9. comprehensive budget(s);
10. professional personnel vitae;
11. position descriptions for all personnel;
12. formal, written agreements;
13. automation statistics;
14. guides to computing services;
15. library evaluation studies or documents;
16. library and other instructional materials and schedules; and
17. evidence of involvement in curriculum development and planning.


These guidelines are based on the ACRL "Guidelines for Distance Learning Library Services" available from http://www.ala.org//acrl/guides/distlrng.html

Submitted December 6, 2000 by the Temple University Libraries Working Group on Virtual Temple and Distance Education Library Services.

Linda Cotilla, Suburban Libraries
Stephanie Ferretti, Health Sciences Center
Ethel Fiderer, Law Library
Frank Immler, Collection Development Services
Byron Mayes, Library Systems & Technology Office
Dominique Monolescu, Temple OnLine Learning Program
Penelope Myers, Library Access Services
Gretchen Sneff, Chair, Engineering & Science Libraries
Sheri Stahler, University Academic Computing
Sam Stormont, Reference & Instructional Services
Bill Stout, CIBaRs, Library Access Services



Temple University Libraries
12/06/2000 hr/gs