Introducing the Guidelines for Distance Learning Library Services
http://www.ala.org/acrl/guides/distlrng.html/

Complete title: ACRL Guidelines for Distance Learning Library Services

ACRL is:
The Association of College and Research Libraries, the Division of the American Library Association for higher education libraries.

The ACRL Guidelines are recognized worldwide as the authoritative document on distance learning library services for post secondary institutions.

These Guidelines are used by colleges and universities to:

• Ensure the provision of equitable library services to both new and existing distance learning programs;
• Ensure that services of high academic quality are provided to both new and existing distance learning programs; and
• Assure accrediting agencies that standards of high academic quality are being maintained in library services to distance learning programs.

The Guidelines are organized into the following sections:

Definitions

The Definitions section provides meanings of terms as they are specifically used in the context of the Guidelines.

Philosophy

The Philosophy section consists of ten precepts, which provide the conceptual principles that form the bedrock for the document. These ten precepts stand as a Bill of Rights for distance learning students, faculty, and other personnel. The core ideas of the precepts are given as follows:

Management

The Management section identifies the chief administrative officers and governance organizations of the institution, as well as the general library administration and the distance learning librarian-administrator, as bearing the fiscal and administrative responsibilities for library services and materials in support of distance learning programs.

Finances

The Finances section calls for institutional funding levels sufficient to meet the specifications given in other sections of the Guidelines, other appropriate ACRL Standards (http://www.ala.org/acrl/guides/), and from professional, state, or regional accrediting agency specifications.

Personnel

The Personnel section identifies the chief administrative officers and governance organizations of the institution as being among those personnel involved in the management and coordination of distance learning library services and bearing responsibility for the provision professional and support personnel in number and quality necessary to attain program goals and objectives.

Facilities

The Facilities section calls for facilities, equipment, and communication links sufficient in size, number, scope, accessibility, and timeliness to reach all students and attain program objectives.

Resources

The Resources section calls for providing or securing convenient, direct physical or electronic access to library materials equivalent to those provided in traditional settings.

Services

The Services section lists those services essential to meeting effectively a wide range of informational, bibliographic, and user needs.

Documentation

The Documentation section lists those records which should be kept to document meeting the Guidelines in providing library services to distance learning programs.

Library Education

The Library Education section calls upon schools of library and information science to include courses and units on provision of distance learning library services.

Revising the Guidelines

…A History of Continuous Adaptation and Development

The Guidelines are a living, dynamic document that has been under ongoing revision since first conceptualized in 1963 and first published in 1967. The most recent edition appeared in 2000. The Guidelines are prepared by the Guidelines Committee of the Distance Learning Section of ACRL.