Page 22 - DLIS406_ACADEMIC_LIBRARY_SYSTEM

Unit 2: Colleges and Universities Libraries

Distance Education Admissions Notes
Distance education courses are becoming trendy in India and the number of institutes present
distance education courses is also growing correspondingly. Admissions to the distance learning
courses are done by the entity institutes. The mode of distance education admissions of these
institutes may be different. While some of the institutes perform entrance examinations, others
may make the admission process simpler.

Task Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the distance learning in your view.

Library Needs
In a situation where a distance learner is seen to be autonomous and independent (Sauve
1993), and that separation of teacher and learner is seen as a central characteristic of distance
education, libraries play a significant role in supporting the process by, amongst other things,
selecting relevant and useful reading materials; organising them in some order so that the
students can find materials they need without wasting time; and making learning materials
readily available for consultation or borrowing. This suggests that, under normal circumstances,
distance education assumes that there would always be supporting institutions such as public
libraries to provide support to distance learners. It is maintained that libraries are a key
resource for many open learners as they provide “access to an enormous range of information...
most of this will take the form of print on paper—that is, books, pamphlets, journals ...”
(Rowntree 1991). But the development of information technology has also made it possible
nowadays for libraries to acquire, organise, store, and disseminate information technology
related learning materials.
In Tanzania, Tanzania Library Services (TLS) which was established in the early 1960s and its
network of regional libraries have had a role in supporting distance learners. In the 1970s and
1980s it played a significant role of providing some of the reading materials to support programmes
such as adult education, and correspondence courses. For almost two decades TLS had been
the envy of most developing countries. However, from mid-1980s resources for the public
library started to decrease considerably. The main sources of income such as government
subventions, and international donor organisations’ contributions dwindled greatly. This had
a negative impact on the TLS system. The plan to develop a public library in every region and
district was halted due to lack of money for development. Collection development slowed
down, as it started to depend on book donors: there was not enough money to purchase
reading materials, even for those published within the country (Mcharazo and Olden 1996).
Ever since the system has been operating with a very low budget. The situation is well summed
up thus “Africa’s governments have lost any initial enthusiasm they had for libraries ... and
are placed low on the national list of priorities” (Sturges and Neill 1998). In the light of this,
it is clear that distance education students are severely affected, and an attempt is made here
to discuss some of the issues confronting public libraries in serving distance learners.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
5. An academic library is a library that is attached to ...... .
6. The first college in the ...... were intended to train members of the clergy.
7. Masters degree courses are also offered through ...... .
8. TLS stands for ...... .

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