Distance Learning and Interlibrary Loan: A Look at Services and Technology

Distance Learning and Interlibrary Loan:A Look at Services and Technology

David H. Fuller Jr.

ABSTRACT. As technology continues to influence the way we do busi-ness, change has been and will continue to be inevitable. All around us,we see the Internet playing a major role in our lives from the way we paybills and do banking to the way we buy stock, shop as consumers, and ob-tain an education. You can’t escape it, and librarians long ago realizedthis truth. To wit library services have evolved to accommodate the in-formational needs demanded by this ever-expanding industry. This evo-lution of library services can be seen, for example, in the way wepromote and provide reference, circulation, and reserves services withinroads even into technical or resource services. With distance educationlibraries are positioning themselves to be major players in this phenome-non at all levels: local, national, and international. One library servicethat is beginning to proceed into the distance-learning arena is interli-brary loan/document delivery. Interlibrary Loan, a traditional library ser-vice for local users, whether provided by an academic, public, or speciallibrary is finding itself in the distance education movement. To explorethis, the focus of this article is to examine the ways in which interlibraryloan impacts and supports distance education through technology andservices. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Deliv-ery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <[email protected]>Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. Allrights reserved.]

KEYWORDS. Distance learning, distance education, interlibrary loan,document delivery

David H. Fuller Jr. is Interlibrary Loan Librarian, University of Florida, SmathersLibraries, P.O. Box 117001, Gainesville, FL 32611 (E-mail: [email protected]).

Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information SupplyVol. 12(4) 2002

http://www.haworthpressinc.com/store/product.asp?sku=J110 2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 15

OVERVIEW

Over the past decade, education has expanded from the traditionalmodel where students attend classes in a building on campus to a moresophisticated, more complex and technological scale. The catalyst forthis metamorphosis consists of several factors:

1. Technology2. Education Trends3. Library Services

Technology

By definition, technology is the science of applied knowledge toachieve a specific purpose or a method based upon technical applicationto obtain a desired result. Over the past decade, technology has become afirm fixture in the day-to-day existence of modern life, and it seems tocontinue to accelerate at an amazing pace each day. An example of thisform of technology that perhaps is the greatest influence of modern edu-cation and library services is the Internet. In modern society, the Internetis as very much a part of day-to-day life as getting up each morning. It’simpact is felt in almost every facet of modern existence ranging fromconsumer shopping, to paying bills, to obtaining an education, to startingup a company and conducting business online; and future possibilities arejust beyond the horizon. One basic question is what is the Internet? Ac-cording to one definition, the Internet or Net as it is sometimes called “isthe collection of information services available on the interconnectedcomputer networks that span the globe.”1 Another explanation of theInternet is that it was the collaboration of the Advanced Research ProjectsAgency (ARPA) in conjunction with four major computers located at theUCLA, Standard Research Institute, UCSB, and the University of Utah.The contract was carried out by BBN of Cambridge, MA and went onlinein December 1969. Later on, other organizations or bodies such as MIT,Harvard, and NASA/Ames were added to the contract. The premise be-hind the Internet was that it “was designed to provide a communicationsnetwork that would work even if some of the sites were destroyed by nu-clear attack. If the most direct route was not available, routers would di-rect traffic around the network via alternate routes.”2 Since that time, theNet and its capabilities have grown and continue to expand. In today’sarena, the Internet, perhaps for most people and businesses, is a means tocommunicate messages, provide service and resources using a computer

16 Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information Supply

rather than or in addition to the traditional telephone, handwritten text,and other forms of advertisement and marketing. The Internet makes pos-sible communication and exchange of ideas in the forms of e-mail, onlinechat services, and linking hypertext in web html (Hypertext Markup Lan-guage) documents. One area that has been greatly affected by the technol-ogy of the Net is education, particularly higher education.

Education Trends

With the capabilities of the Internet, the method by which students re-ceive education is vastly changing. Over the past few years, a trend of de-veloping classes via the web can be seen as a new teaching alternative. Inhigher education, faculty are now beginning to offer classes via the Webas they look for more creative and accommodating ways to provide stu-dents with an education.

One example of this growing trend is the University of Florida’sInternet MBA programs. This is one of the first online MBA degrees tobe offered by a fully accredited business school. The program uses thelatest Internet technology to provide a true form of interactive learningwhere the student does not have to physically enter a classroom.3 Anotherform of Internet learning includes online lectures where students down-load and attend lecturing sessions online at their convenience. Faculty isable to utilize Internet tools such as web browsers, ftp sites, listservs, andonline discussion group lists to educate their students.

Although students on campus are utilizing these new innovations in to-day’s education arsenal, off-campus students seem to be the driving forcebehind the distance education movement. As with the University ofFlorida’s Internet MBA programs, many institutions are beginning to of-fer courses via the web as a distance education tool. This new educationmodel where the education comes to the student is becoming more andmore paramount as opposed to the traditional model of the student goingto the education.

These types of programs are being offered throughout the UnitedStates in institutions of higher learning. For example, the University ofPhoenix offers an on-line BS degree program. This allows a student notliving on campus, but rather from home to access lectures and reading as-signments remotely and perform course work online. Duke University’sFuqua School of Business also offers an online Global Executive MBAprogram to students living outside of the U.S. in countries such as Swit-zerland and Hong Kong.4

David H. Fuller Jr. 17

Furthermore, institutions are forming partnerships with privateInternet companies and with other online universities to offer degree pro-grams via Net. According to one resource, an example of this type of re-cent partnership is the agreement between Harvard University, DukeUniversity, and the University of Pennsylvania with the Silicon Valleycourseware design company Pensare to exchange course material for rev-enue and company equity. In addition, institutions such as Stanford, Co-lumbia, and the University of Chicago have instituted similar agreementswith companies like Unext.com.5

According to the Lifelong Learning, an adult education consultingfirm in Waterbury Vermont, the number of students taking online coursesis expected to “double by 2004 to more than 1.5 million. Fueling thisgrowth of online learning is convenience and proliferation of theInternet.”6 With the examples above of the new digital education para-digm, it is clear that the Internet is the catalyst for this evolution in aca-demic learning. With this proliferation of educational methodology andtechnology, the demand for library services to keep pace is undeniable.

Library Services

There was a time when basic library services were enough to meet theeducational demands of the academic community, but that time is nomore. In order to survive, to compete, and to thrive in the digital age, li-braries must adapt to keep pace with the changing educational needs anddemands of their students, faculty, and staff. It is clear that the DigitalAge has had a major impact on the way higher education and librariesview themselves and their relationship. As new technologies and innova-tions develop, libraries and higher education have found themselves re-thinking and redefining the education and library relationship on abroader scale. Some libraries have redefined and modified services andconcepts in areas such as access to resources, reserves and reference ser-vices. For example in the area of access to resources, most libraries in oneform or another have contracted with publishers and vendors to providetheir patrons with access to full-text citation database. Such full-text data-bases include Elsevier, Jstor, Springer, and other full-text databases suchas Business and Academic Index. In an academic and community envi-ronment, users may access these databases for full-text articles withouthaving to enter or to search these items at their local library. This form ofaccess guarantees that the article is available and provides the user theluxury of accessing the format from their home, office, or dormitory. Thisresource is a valued tool to the distance-learning student. In the area of


Reserves, many institutions are providing electronic reserves to users.E-Reserves allows students electronic access to class notes, instructor’ssyllabus, test, and articles again without having to actually enter to the li-brary. Libraries also are providing hyper links to instructor’s web pageswhere faculty themselves have scanned and loaded data. As for referenceservices, libraries are beginning to offer an online reference chat servicewhereby users communicate interactively with reference staff for refer-ence service. For the University of Florida’s Smathers Libraries, this isone of the latest services that the library offers to both on-campus and dis-tance learning students. Again, this permits the user the convenience forbasic ready reference service from a remote location. In addition tofull-text databases, reference services, and electronic reserves, interli-brary loan is another resource available to libraries to help meet the de-mands of the distance-learning user.

INTERLIBRARY LOAN BACKGROUND AND PRINCIPLE

Traditionally, interlibrary loan has been a service offered by librariesto their users in two forms: borrowing and lending. Interlibrary loan bor-rowing encompasses one institution or library borrowing materials on be-half of their patrons from another library. Interlibrary Loan lendinginvolves the opposite by which one library or institution lends materialsfrom its collection(s) to another. According to the Interlibrary Loan Prac-tices Handbook, the purpose of interlibrary loan “is to borrow or obtaincopies of library materials not found in a local collection on behalf of thatlibrary’s clientele, and to lend or provide copies of library materials re-quested by other libraries.”7 Another snap shot of the interlibrary loanconcept is presented from the perspective of the Interlibrary Loan Codefor the United States, which currently is under revision. According to theCode, interlibrary loan functions as a compliment to local libraries col-lections. It also stresses the need for individual libraries to build solid corecollections to support their students, faculty, and staff. In addition, it con-veys the underlying principle that no library has it all regardless of sizeand types, and that it is only through cooperative resource sharing as bor-rowers and lenders that interlibrary loan works.

Interlibrary Loan Technology

Throughout its history, interlibrary loan has remained a public servicetransaction at an institution to institution level consisting of basic borrow-


ing and lending operations. At this time interlibrary loan technology basi-cally existed in two forms. The first was the OCLC national database thatallowed an online requesting mechanism between libraries for borrowingand lending of material via ILL, and the second was the fax machine thatoffered a faster means of delivering articles from one library to anothercompared to the postal mail. At its time, these technologies were consid-ered innovative and a means to promoting resource sharing, faster deliv-ery of materials, and the evolution of an important service that was oftenrun out of a back office located remotely in the library. As technologycontinued to advance with the use of the Internet and as new formats ofstoring and transmitting data formed, the possibilities for interlibrary loanbegan to unfold. For example, with the development of a web version ofthe library’s catalog or OPAC and access to online citation databases andother electronic resources, library users found a wealth of information attheir disposal. No longer were library users limited to their local library’scollections and collections of other libraries, but they received access to avariety of new resources, such as online citation databases, electronicjournals, international collections, and digital information, which causeda steady increase in interlibrary loan borrowing and lending. To handlethis increase in interlibrary loan service and to rise to the occasion to meetever-evolving users’ demands, libraries realized the current interlibraryloan technology was not enough. Throughout the country and in othercountries, libraries and library vendors began developing and institutingnewer and more advanced technology to keep pace with increasing inter-library loan transactions involving elements such as work flow issues,costs, and user needs. With this came development of software, such asAriel, Prospero, ILLIAD, WINGS, and other interlibrary loan packages;and the development continues with the interlibrary loan ISO protocoland NISO standards issues to improve and expand the interlibrary loanservice.

Interlibrary Loan Service

With the use of the Internet and commercial vendors expanding theirservices, document delivery became the next major component of interli-brary loan service. The phrase document delivery takes on many conno-tations depending upon how and what libraries define as documentdelivery. For example, for some libraries document delivery is access thatthey provide to users to full-text citation databases or commercial ven-dors such as Infortrieve. For others, it may be delivering materials di-rectly to faculty members’ offices and to student dorms. Yet for others, it


may be a separate component that provides service to off-campus faculty.In this context, document delivery takes the form of interlibrary loan of-fices obtaining materials for their users from commercial suppliers ofdocuments, such as CARL Uncover, the British Library, CISTI, and soforth. Document delivery services allowed ILL staff to order articles fortheir users directly from a commercial source. This new addition to the ILLarsenal allowed libraries to consider the option of having photocopies ofarticles obtained from commercial vendors sent directly to the user’s of-fice, home, or dormitory address. This meant that library users would nothave to come to the library to retrieve photocopies of articles obtained fromcommercial vendors or have those articles sent to them via the ILL Office.The material could be sent directly to the user’s address without ILL medi-ation. However, with the instituting of the distance-learning concept andpractices, interlibrary loan is finding itself as an important option that li-braries are using to services this the population of patrons.

Interlibrary Loan and Distance Learning

As mentioned earlier, interlibrary loan traditionally was an institu-tion-to-institution transaction using the OCLC and fax technology. Aseducators, publishers, and vendors expand their technological access toinformation for users, libraries also are redefining the role as informationproviders in the digital age. As library technology continues to develop,as education models began to expand, and as user needs continue to grow,libraries will continue to evaluate and to redefine its mission, goals, andobjectives. One area that some libraries are beginning to explore as a ser-vice to distance learners is the Interlibrary Loan operation. In the area ofinterlibrary loan, libraries are beginning to explore and to modify this ser-vice in three ways: desk-top delivery of articles, delivery of books to dis-tance learning facilities and patron’s homes, and universal ILLpartnerships between consortium libraries.

Access: Desk Top Delivery

Desk Top delivery of documents is a key area that is allowing interli-brary loan to provide service to distance learners as well as to campusand/or community users. Two examples of technology that interlibraryloan practitioners have at their disposal for service to distance learners areAriel and Prospero. What is Ariel? Ariel is a software program developedby the Research Libraries Group (RLG) that allows interlibrary loan of-fices to send and to receive articles using the web. In principle it works on


the same premise as the fax machine, except that Ariel is designed tocommunicate with another Ariel workstation. Ariel allows a document tobe scanned, compressed and sent via the Internet to another Ariel work-station as a tiff file. The receiving workstation decompresses the docu-ment and makes it available to the receiving site either by printing thedocument or via e-mail distribution. This software has allowed ILL tomake documents available to their distance learners as an e-mail attach-ment. The one draw back to this method of delivery, however, has beenthat normally user’s e-mail accounts are not setup to handle such largedocument files, and it usually takes a fair amount of time for the article tobe viewable by the user. Nevertheless, it has allowed ILL staff the optionto provide electronic delivery of articles to their users both locally and re-motely. Since Ariel had some limitations as a distance-learning tool forinterlibrary loan, some libraries utilized the software known as Prosperoas a compliment to Ariel. What is Prospero? Prospero is a web-baseddocument delivery software program that allows interlibrary loan officesto provide desktop delivery of articles to their users and is a complementto the Ariel software. Prospero contains two components. The staff sideof the program runs on Windows. The program captures Ariel tiff filesand converts them to portable document format (pdf) files that can beposted to a web server or sent to the user directly. For documents storedon a server, Prospero allows an e-mail message to be produced and sent tousers informing them that their article(s) is available and ready for viewfrom their computer; that is the second function of the program. Thiseliminates the limitations of the current version of Ariel that are theamount of time and e-mail space needed by a user’s e-mail software toopen and receive interlibrary loan articles. The complement is thatProspero provides a means for interlibrary loan to receive incoming Arieldocuments and make them accessible to users via their desktops no mat-ter where they are located. In addition to Ariel and Prospero, interlibraryloan offices are using other imaging software, such as DocView, JFAX,and Relais Express to send articles to their users via desktop delivery.Even further, libraries are beginning to explore the area of providingdesktop delivery of articles from their own collections. This aspect willallow libraries through their ILL operations to scan articles directly fromtheir local collections and provide them to distance learners via the com-puter desk top as full text articles. With this implementation, interlibraryloan becomes a true document delivery service. Based upon the above, itis clear that technology is allowing ILL to become a major library serviceto distance education students no matter the location as well as to local oron-campus users.


In the area of service to distance learners, again interlibrary loan can bea major component of library service to them.

Access: Services

With the current and developing technologies such as Ariel, Prospero,and interlibrary loan management systems, libraries are able to expandtheir services even more to distance education patrons. This has beendemonstrated with the use of software packages to provide full text arti-cles directly to the user via his/her desktop, but what about the delivery ofmonographs or books to the distance learner. This is an area of servicethat currently is in the pilot stage of development. Depending upon the li-brary type, their mission, goals, and objectives, this endeavor may be ac-complished in a couple of ways, either by circulation or interlibrary loan.From an interlibrary loan service stand point, libraries can provide the de-livery of books to the distance education student, faculty, or staff via theirinterlibrary loan service. One example of this model of service is the In-terlibrary Loan operation at the University of Florida’s Smathers librar-ies. For a couple of years, the interlibrary loan operation has provideddelivery of UF owned books directly to the distance learner’s addresswhether it is a distance learning facility, their home, and/or their office nomatter where they are located in the country. The process involves verify-ing the distance learner as an official distance learner based upon cate-gory group and university registration. The distance learner submitshis/her requests for materials via the distance learning web site, where therequest is processed by the Document Delivery service that is a compo-nent of the Interlibrary Loan operation. If the request is for a book that isheld by the library, document delivery staff retrieves the materials fromthe stacks, charges the materials to the user’s university or library ID,bands and packages the book, and sends it to the mailroom for deliverywhere it is sent via UPS to the user’s address of choice.

For books that are not held within the local collection, the material isrouted to Interlibrary Loan Borrowing where it is ordered dependingupon the distance learner’s category. If the distance learner is located at aUniversity of Florida distance learning facility, their requests for booksthat are not UF owned books are processed and sent to their facility whenILL receives the materials. If the distance learner is located at home andnot at a UF facility, staff cancels the request for a non-locally held book,and the user is referred to their local public library where they may havethe material ordered by interlibrary loan. (This policy applies only tonon-University owned books.) If the distance learner is requesting an ar-


ticle for a journal not held by the UF libraries’ collections, the item is or-dered by Borrowing and sent to the user’s home, facility, or address ofchoice.

Again, this is another demonstration of how interlibrary loan can playa major role in library services to distance users, and even with this, therestill is more.

Access: Partnerships

Another arena in which interlibrary loan can be an important libraryservice to distance learners is through consortium partnerships. The con-sortium relationship is a valuable element in the universal patron conceptwhich technology is assisting libraries to obtain. Consortium partneringmay exist on several levels, such as local, regional, national, and interna-tional. In addition, these contracts may exist as formal and informalagreements. Examples of such partnerships are the Florida Library Infor-mation Network (FLIN), the State University System of Florida (SUS),the Association of Southeast Research Libraries (ASERL), the ResearchLibraries Group SHARES program, and many others. In consortium ar-rangements, interlibrary loan again can be an important resource for li-braries to utilize for their distance-learning students. One example of howthis model can work is the State University System of Florida that is com-prised of ten institutions. They are the University of Florida, Florida StateUniversity, Florida A&M University, University of North Florida, Uni-versity of Central Florida, University of South Florida, University ofWest Florida, Florida International University, Florida Gulf Coast Uni-versity, Florida Atlantic University. The interlibrary loan librarians, un-der the authority of the SUS State Interlibrary Loan Subcommittee,drafted a document that outlines the agreement and policies that governsthe institutions’ commitment to providing interlibrary loan service to dis-tance learners of the home institution. Through this initiative, a host SUSinstitution may provide interlibrary loan services to another institution’sfaculty, staff, and student living within the service area of that organiza-tion. The premise is that the distance learner is governed and given thesame rights and privileges as the on-campus ILL users of that institution,and is held accountable for fines, fees, and so on as if he were a student ofthat university.

Another example of consortium or institutional partnership is theFlorida Distance Learning Library Initiative that is the driving force be-hind the initiative to support distance education programs in higher edu-cation throughout the State of Florida. Not only does the initiative focus


on university libraries, but it also encompasses a cooperative effort be-tween public and community college libraries as well for the benefit ofall users. Part of the initiative includes the establishment of Florida Dis-tance Learning Reference and Referral Center. Services availablethrough the center include answering general reference questions, pro-viding assistance in accessing and using various types of library cata-logs and applications such as Netscape and Microsoft Explorer, andreferring users to appropriate distance learning resources whether it be alibrary, agency, or what-have-you. The initiative also contracted a statecourier for a faster delivery of interlibrary loan materials between alltypes of Florida libraries.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion it is clear that interlibrary loan has a future in the dis-tance education age, and that many libraries are beginning to exploreways in which to expand their services to users both on and off-campus.Several ways to achieve this as discussed earlier are (1) desktop deliveryof documents to users no matter the location, (2) valued added service ofsending books directly to the user’s preferred address, and (3) utilizingconsortium/reciprocal partnerships to add even greater interlibrary loanresource sharing potential to distance learners. Still there is greater ILLpotential for distance learners as libraries forge ahead and explore the de-livery of books in digital format. It is clear that as technology and innova-tions continue to advance and as education continues to evolve as a result,libraries also will continue to redefine their services and resources tomeet the ever changing informational needs of its clientele.

REFERENCES

1. Baun, Eric. The Internet Directory. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.2. Young, Gray. The Internet. New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1998.3. Florida MBA Program. University of Florida. 3 January 2001 <http://www.

floridamba.ufl.edu/>.4. Gubernick, Lisa, and Ashlea Ebeling. “I Got My Degree Through E-mail.” Forbes

159.12 (June 16, 1997): 84 (6).5. Green, Joshua. “The Online Education Bubble.” The American Prospect 11.11

(October 23, 2000): 32.6. “Higher Education Goes Electronic.” Resource: Engineering & Technology for a

Sustainable World 7.1 (January 2000): 6.7. Boucher, Virginia. Interlibrary Loan Practices Handbook. 2nd ed. Chicago:

American Library Association, 1997.


Documents

Distance Learning and Interlibrary Loan: A Look at Services and Technology