A MESSAGE FROM THE
DISTANCE LEARNING LIBRARIAN

        
Carol Dales, Distance Learning Librarian

The CSUDH University Library has a long tradition
of providing quality information to students, faculty, and staff.  As the university continues to expand its Extended Education programs to provide course work and degrees to students at a distance, the Library has been examining how best to serve
these students. A major development was my appointment in Fall 2001 as the Library’s first Distance Learning Librarian.

     As a veteran of several years in the Dominguez Hills HUX program, I felt especially well qualified to plunge headlong into providing electronic database troubleshooting, library instruction and reference advice to students and faculty involved in courses offered away from the CSUDH campus. I regularly hear from Bachelors and Masters degree students in Nursing, Business  Administration, Humanities, Public Administration and Quality Assurance, and I look forward to reaching out to anyone enrolled in the many programs delivered by CSUDH via cable, satellite, videoconferencing and online.

     I would like to introduce you to some of the resources and services currently available to distance education students. Many of these are accessible through the Library's web site at http://library.csudh.edu/. Our home page, constantly evolving as the source of an incredible amount of information to support distance learners, provides convenient links to:

    1)  our own Library catalog as  well as to a host of library catalogs all over the world
    2)   online subscription databases, many of which can
be accessed remotely by students off campus who need full text of scholarly articles for their  research papers
    3)   helpful advice on locating, evaluation and citing information sources, written specifically for  students
doing research papers
    4)   lists of websites recommended for students in specific academic disciplines
    5)  the Distance Learning Library Services web page, a means of reaching out to off-campus CSUDH students everywhere.

     Reference services are presently provided to off-campus students through phone and email contact. Students using the Distance Learning website are encouraged to get in touch with me as needed. I do plan to launch an online "ask-a-question" form to streamline the process of asking for reference assistance online.

Other short and long term goals include:

·          expanding the  Distance Learning web site with online tutorials to assist distance learners in
using electronic resources independently

·          collaborating with faculty who work with distance learners to be sure their students are aware of and using Library resources effectively

·          assisting the  Head of  Library Reference Services in expanding the CSUDH collection of e-journals and other full text journals available to distance learners

     Carol Dales, CSUDH Distance Learning Librarian, provides library services to distance learning students and faculty. She can be reached at
310-243-2088, via email at cdales@csudh.edu,
or at her office in LIB B-218 (2nd floor of the Library).

Visit the CSUDH Library Distance Learning Homepage!