ISSUES 0 ACCESS 

By Dr .. Lesley S .. J .. Farmer 

Education l ibraries can have the greatest collections, but if they are not physically and intellectually ac­
cessible, they do little good . Increasingly, academic l ibrarians are focusing on the intellectual  access to 
information, thankfully. As universities lean towards an instructional specialty model, their professional 
staff can develop collaborative relationships with their associated teaching faculty, creating meaningful 
learning information l iteracy activities for university students. 

This issue tackles some of the other concerns of access to resources and services, focusing on the 
needs of the user. Yunfei Du addresses the new versions of d istance learning: web-based courses. He 
examines the satisfaction level of users relative to their computer competency. As universities increas­
ingly mount courses online, they may make assumptions about their students' technological ski l ls. Re­
gardless of the fact that today's mil lennial-generation students have grown up in an Internet world, they 
were not born with technology genes or had computer chips implanted into their brains. Distance learn ing, 
while often geographically convenient, can be an isolating experience for students. If thei r  technological 
expertise is also in question , they are l ikely to be frustrated and prone to drop out. Du's study looks at the 
contributing factors in this scenario. Particularly as education l ibraries are obligated to provide the same 
level of service and resources to distance learners, Du's conclusions warrant attention. 

Catherine Carter addresses l ibrary access for students with disabil ities. She identifies three areas of con­
centration: bibl iographic instruction, web page design, and staff train ing. Because the term "disabil ity" can 
refer to so many d ifferent issues: how students perceive information, how they process it internal ly, and 
how they communicate it, a one-size-fits-all approach is an injustice to these often gifted students. To be 
fai r, though, trying to figure out the appropriate approach for each student's accommodations can be 
daunting . Carter wisely suggests that creating universal ly-accessible web sites and instructional delivery 
systems benefits al l  students. 

Nancy O'Brien's d iscussion of bibl iographic access to historical children's textbooks and other print mate­
rials may sound trad itional .  She notes traditional access tools, mentioning both high-profi le and l ittle­
known sources. She rounds out the issue of access by discussing the impact of the world wide web. 

In a fascinating way, access to early Americana primers l inks to access to electronic resources for dis­
tance learning.  The key point is that access issues endure, and that attention needs to be paid to users 
as well as to the resources themselves. Librarians' roles include l inking those two entities in meaningful 
ways. Not far from John Cotton Dana. 

Education Libraries Volume 27, No. 2 Winter 2004 4