An Overview of Distance Library Services at Nova Southeastern University’s Main Library

Nova Southeastern University (NSU), located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is the largest private university in the Southeastern part of the United States, and the sixth largest nonprofit, independent university in the nation (NSU, 2007b). Total student enrollment for Fall 2006 was 25,960 (NSU, 2007c). The university offers associate, bachelor, master, specialist, doctoral, and first-professional degrees in education, business, medicine, law, psychology, marine sciences, and a variety of other fields. The university has so far produced over 85,000 alumni (NSU, 2007b).NSU is rapidly gaining recognition as a pioneer and leader in distance education, particularly at the graduate level. NSU was the first institution of higher education in the nation to offer graduate programs in an online format (NSU, 2007b). “NSU has been offering online programs and programs with an online component since 1983. NSU was also the first to use the Unix system to host online courses, and one of the first to use the Internet to support instruction” (NSU, 2007b, Distance Education at NSU section, para. 1). The majority of NSU’s academic programs currently offer courses online in addition to the traditional on-campus courses (Quinlan & Tuñón, 2004). In addition to online courses, NSU administers many of its programs through academic centers and sites located across the country and in international locations such as the Caribbean, Greece, Mexico, and the United Kingdom (NSU, 2007b).The main library at Nova Southeastern University is the Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center. The library officially opened in December 2001 and is the outcome of a collaboration between the county (Broward) and the university. As a result, the library is a joint-use facility that offers an assortment of public and academic services to members of the NSU community and Broward County (Lubans, 2002). At 325,000 square feet, the library is the largest library building in the state of Florida. The high tech-building is open more than 100 hours each week, offers wireless service, a café, study rooms, fully equipped electronic classrooms, and numerous print and online resources (Quinlan & Tuñón, 2004). Other libraries at NSU include the Health Professions Division Library, the Shepard Broad Law Library and Technology Center, and the William S. Richardson Ocean Sciences Library.The library’s collections and resources are impressive. Currently, the collection consists of over 700,000 volumes with room in the building for 1.4 million (Marie, 2007; NSU, 2007a). Users are also able to check out laptop computers to use in the building. The library has 700 computer stations, subscriptions to more than 200 online databases, 20 classroom labs, seats in the building to accommodate as many as 1,000 users, conference/meeting rooms, a gallery for displaying art and other exhibits, and a large parking garage (Marie; NSU). Numerous events open to the public are held in the library including book discussions, library and technology classes, specialized exhibits, readings by authors, book fairs, craft presentations, programs for children, student orientations, and more (NSU, 2007a).The library makes a variety of services available to NSU’s distance students. Students have access to many online research resources including the library’s catalog and over 200 research databases that provide full-text access to many scholarly journals, books, dissertations, and newspapers. The library’s Web site contains numerous help resources including an A to Z index, detailed subject/topic help pages, database and technology help sheets, tutorials, and FAQs. Students can view an online video about the library services available to distance students or request that a version on CD be mailed to them (NSU, 2007a).A comprehensive library handbook is available on the Web site in HTML, PDF, and Word formats. In addition, students can request that a print copy of the handbook be mailed to them. The handbook contains detailed descriptions of all the library services and resources available to students, and contact information. There is even a section explaining the research process and the steps involved. Other sections in the handbook include discussions of types of periodicals, primary and secondary sources, peer-reviewed articles, database search guides, locating specific types of articles, and citing sources using American Psychological Association style (NSU, 2007a).The Alvin Sherman Library also provides document delivery service for distance students to borrow books and dissertations, and obtain copies of journal articles not available full-text online. The library has lending agreements with various libraries throughout the country. Using online request forms, students can request up to 25 items per week through the document delivery services. Materials are delivered to users through the mail and via electronic means (articles are posted to a secure Web site). Students keep track of transactions by accessing their online document delivery account (NSU, 2007a).The main library provides distance students with various ways of receiving general, technical, and research assistance from librarians. The reference desk, which is open 7 days a week, is staffed with librarians for over 80 hours each week (Quinlan & Tuñón, 2004). Students can e-mail questions to the reference desk using an online form and expect a response from a librarian within 24 hours. Students can also call the reference desk with questions using a toll-free number regardless of whether they are in the United States, Canada, or the Caribbean (NSU, 2007a).Another service available to NSU distance students is live chat reference. The library provides students with access to chat reference through a service called Florida Ask a Librarian (http://www.askalibrarian.org). Librarians from all over the state of Florida (including NSU Alvin Sherman Library librarians) provide general reference and research assistance to users. Students can sign in during the hours of operation and receive live help from the librarians on duty. Chat reference is available to students for over 80 hours each week (NSU, 2007a).A typical 2-hour shift at the reference desk may require a librarian to “use e-mail to help an NSU doctoral business student from Georgia, guide a walk-in distance student from a proximal academic institution to a full-text database, and provide digital chat reference to an unaffiliated college student in Gainesville” (Quinlan & Tuñón, 2004, p. 117).Live help is also available to distance learners in the form of individual library training. Students can schedule an appointment for a one-on-one phone consultation with one of the Alvin Sherman Library librarians. Students then call a toll-free number at the scheduled time and receive a 1-hour consultation with the librarian assigned to them. Students are able to sign up for additional sessions as needed (NSU, 2007a).Other services provided by the library include access to tools such as Thomas ResearchSoft and EndNote for compiling and creating bibliographies, access to electronic course reserves, and information about local library resources in the various areas where distance students live (NSU, 2007a). NSU distance students visiting the Fort Lauderdale area are always welcome to stop by the reference desk in person for research or other assistance.Librarians at NSU’s main library are also responsible for providing library training to many of the university’s distance students. NSU’s distance students are often located miles away from the main campus of the university and rely heavily on the online library for their research needs. It is therefore essential that they receive library training. According to Johanna Tuñón, head of the library’s Distance and Instructional Library Services department, librarians regularly travel to the university’s academic centers throughout the country and the Caribbean to present library instructional sessions to students (J. Tuñón, personal communication, April 17, 2007). In addition, they travel to the school of education’s annual conference to provide library training sessions and assistance to that department’s numerous distance students. Library instruction is also made available through online training modules that students complete as part of course requirements in their respective programs. Librarians also create and maintain the asynchronous training tools such as the online tutorials, help sheets, subject guides, and the print and electronic versions of the library handbook (J. Tuñón, personal communication, April 17, 2007).Future library instruction plans include the use of technologies such as Captivate to create interactive online tutorial and other training tools that incorporate a variety of media including audio and video. There are also plans to explore the offering of library training during live synchronous class sessions using software such as Elluminate or Horizon Wimba, and to further integrate library training into the curriculum of the academic programs (J. Tuñón, personal communication, April 17, 2007).The continuous development of new electronic information technologies has led to an increase in the number of distance education degree programs available as well as the number of institutions of higher education offering such programs. This rapid growth of distance education has allowed an ever-increasing number of students from a variety of locations to enroll in distance programs. Since distance students depend on the online library and librarians for their academic needs, it is important that universities provide adequate resources and services for them. In 2004, 50.7% of Alvin Sherman Library users accessing the online databases were distance NSU graduate students (Quinlan & Tuñón, 2004).According to the Guidelines for Distance Learning Library Services provided by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), “library resources and services in institutions of higher education must meet the needs of all their faculty, students, and academic support personnel, regardless of where they are located” (ACRL, 2004, para. 1). Nova Southeastern University’s Alvin Sherman Library, Research, and Information Technology Center seems committed to providing distance students with the resources and support essential for their academic success.

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