Abstract
Deakin University in Victoria, Australia has provided a full library service to its off-campus students since its formation in 1977. Electronic access to the catalogue has been available since 1992 and over 150 networked databases including several with full-text are currently in use. Yet despite ready availability and high use of electronic resources, our students are still heavy users of document delivery of books and journal articles, indicating that the so-called virtual library by itself is unlikely to meet the library needs of off-campus users adequately. The paper considers the difficulties facing off-campus students and concludes that access to electronic services and facilities, despite its limitations, offers the best solution to many of the needs of these students. A particular difficulty for many distance students is obtaining the necessary software and setting themselves up to use electronic services. The Deakin Learning Toolkit was developed to meet these needs. Supplied as a free CD-ROM to all students and staff of the University, it provides software, information and tutorials on an easy to install and use disk. Library-related features of the Toolkit are described in detail.
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