No Learner Too Far: A Comparative Study of the Development of Guidelines for Distance Education Library Services in Australia

Abstract

This paper is a comparative study relating to the development of global education policy. It examines the origins of the distance learning library services guidelines developed in Australia by the then Library Association of Australia (LAA), and those by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) division of the American Libraries Association (ALA) and by the Library Association (LA) of the United Kingdom. While the guidelines in the United States grew out of efforts to provide quality library services for an expanding population of off-campus college students, and Britain's perhaps out of the needs for an expanded approach to tertiary education, the Open University, the language in these guidelines would expand to meet criteria for a newer era locally. The paper discusses the various conditions under which guidelines for distance education library services originated and evolved in Australia and their influence elsewhere.