Is your university online library sufficient to complete your degree?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by simon, Sep 22, 2005.

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  1. simon

    simon New Member

    There is a qualitative difference in the scope and diversity of library databases, their provision of free versus paid dissertation downloads and related informational resources that can make all the difference in one's online educational experience and potentially facilitating the completion of their degrees.

    Schools such as Capella utilize an extensive library system that is under the aegis of John Hopkins University. It provides a broad and diverse collection of resources oriented to the myriad specialization areas offered its student body. I believe that Walden U has a similar arrangement with another world class online library provided by the University of Indiana. NCU's appears to be slowly incorporating more databases but does not appear to be commensurate with its sister institutions. What about TUI's, Nova, Fielding, Saybrook, etc?

    I would like to hear about others' experiences with the library systems of their respective online universities and whether it is sufficient in itself to enable one to complete their degree programs without utilizing an external local or brick and mortar university library.
     
  2. firstmode4c

    firstmode4c Member

    itt tech uses books 24x7 and ebrary along with their text books
     
  3. George Brown

    George Brown Active Member

    Even though I am located in Adelaide, and am about 3 kms away from the university, I consider myself a distance student as I have no need to attend face to face. Why? Because our online library system is absolutely stunning! Every online database under the sun available, and an inter-library loan system which has filled every request I have made within a week. Fantastic.

    Cheers,

    George
     
  4. DTechBA

    DTechBA New Member

    Come on

    Who uses the school's library anymore? I did my TUI MBA and only referenced theirs once. It was such a pain in the rear I never did it again.....
     
  5. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Absolutely not.

    The University of London's on-line library support consists of paid subscriptions to two major on-line legal research outfits, WestlawUK and Justus.com. The remaining on-line support comprises the Home Office websites and similar.

    These resources would be adequate (if inconvenient) for practicing law. They are utterly INADEQUATE for scholarly research.

    1) WAAAY too slow.

    2) Journals online don't go back far enough and in the case of certain major ones, are available only by (expensive) paid subscriptions.

    3) Standard treatises are not available online so must be purchased 75% of the time since U.S. law libraries rarely have them.

    3) The on-line format does not allow convenient comparasons between texts whilst reading. (this defect is inherent in the on-line system as it now stands, though.)

    Students in the U.K. can purchase access to the University of London Library for a very reasonable annual fee but that isn't any good to anyone outside the London area.
     
  6. mattchand

    mattchand Member

    I found the digital library in the University of Connecticut system accessible as a COSC student to be cumbersome and difficult to use; I ultimately had more success with scholar.google.com, although even that was somewhat hit and miss between finding full texts and mere abstracts of papers which had to be purchased.

    I wonder if anyone has much used the newish print.google.com?

    Matt
     
  7. Charles

    Charles New Member

    AMU - Outstanding
    Liberty - Outstanding
    Unisa - Would be more convenient if I lived in Pretoria

    Other library services:

    Navy Library e-Content via Navy Knowledge Online

    LibraryPoint.org via Cenral Rappahanock Regional Library
     
  8. iquagmire

    iquagmire Member

    Baker College, Nova and UMUC all seem to subscribe to ProQuest, Infotrac and other databases that has helped me do all of my research just fine. But when I need more info (or when I want to look at a book instead of a printout) I would go to Broward County Library and check them out.
     
  9. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    haulin' pulp, man, haulin' pulp

    I have not used online library resources. I have used a number of university libraries as a guest borrower and have found them most helpful. One in particular has supplied me with about 200 books through interlibrary loan. I also had a friend in BC "raid" the University of British Columbia, and another in Indiana "raid" the University of Cincinnati. With one notorious exception at $500 p.a. (which I declined to pay), guest borrower cards have ranged from $15 per semester at one school to free at most schools. Many US states now have a statewide borrower programme which can be validated for an individual borrower through the local public library.
     
  10. Andy Borchers

    Andy Borchers New Member

    I've had a lot of experience with Nova's library - and they are first rate. Besides a huge physical facility in Ft. Lauderdale, I find that they have excellen on-line resources. Given NSU's large size and broad number of degree programs (liberal arts, law, medicine, psychology, oceanography, etc.) they have a strong collection.

    A while ago I did some comparisons of NSU's library expenditures compared to those of other DL schools. NSU spend significantly more than the DL only schools and those that were for-profit.

    Regards - Andy

     
  11. BinkWile

    BinkWile New Member

  12. adireynolds

    adireynolds New Member

    Re: Re: Is your university online library sufficient to complete your degree?

    Hi Andy,

    I'm not sure it would be fair to draw any conclusions from that statement. Given that a school such as Capella doesn't have a b&m presence, the only expenditure they will have is in fees for usage rights to Johns Hopkins. In other words, since they don't have a physical library to build up, they'd probably never match the financial outlay that NSU does.

    However, that doesn't mean that their library offerings are inadequate; Johns Hopkins, after all, is a first rate school, with an excellent library system!

    Cheers,
    Adrienne
     
  13. Andy Borchers

    Andy Borchers New Member

    Re: Re: Re: Is your university online library sufficient to complete your degree?

    Adrienne - I can say that I've "browsed the shelves" in several on-line programs' libraries - and have found them lacking much compared to NSU's collection. I don't know about Capella - if they have full access to everything that John Hopkinis has or not.

    Beyond collections, another key concern is librarian support. A good reference librarian can be a very valuable help in doing research.

    I suspect that for many DL students, library support isn't very important. Some will say - "but I have the Interent"! However, many of the sources one needs for dissertation work aren't available for free on the Internet.

    Regards - Andy
     
  14. bing

    bing New Member

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Is your university online library sufficient to complete your degree?

    WorldCat, ProQuest, ebrary, your local library. etc. All great choices to get what you would likely need.

    Chances are your local library(through ILL) can get most things you might need, even from NSU(if that's the only place that has it), to complete study.

    When I was in undergrad, I used the library mainly for sleeping, and studying my textbooks. I recall using it to do research for my senior thesis, though. I can use my local university libraries, too. Those are always possibilites for people who are not attending a local school. Often, local colleges and universities have something available for you to use even if you are not a student there.



     
  15. Andy Borchers

    Andy Borchers New Member

    Re: Is your university online library sufficient to complete your degree?

    These are a good start - but there are so many more. And there are some publications that aren't available on-line.

    I checked out Nova's list of databases - they literally have hundreds. 21 listings in Business, 12 in Computer science, 12 in education, 14 in psychology, 8 in law ... and the list goes on.

    You can certainly get some things from inter-library loan - but how long will it take? How much will your local library spend to get specialized resources that you need?

    Regards - Andy

     
  16. bing

    bing New Member

    Re: Re: Is your university online library sufficient to complete your degree?

    Right. That's why I lumped in my local universities. I figure I can get about anything I need at Indiana U. Residents of my state are able to use the IU library system at no charge. With my card I can check out materials and use the libraries of numerous local universities and colleges. DL students should not overlook these kinds of resources. My company has quite an extensive research libary, too.



     
  17. adireynolds

    adireynolds New Member

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Is your university online library sufficient to complete your degree?

    Hi Andy,

    Point taken. It's my understanding for Capella that while we have direct access to the major databases, we can access the rest of the JH collection through library loan. Our librarians are on staff there, and have been enormously helpful for my needs. You're right about good reference librarian! Of course, most of the students at Capella wouldn't need the entire library at JH, since Capella doesn't offer degrees in Arts and Science fields.

    I also agree 100% that the Internet is not adequate as a research source, certainly not at the PhD level! Hopefully DL students that start out with the attitude that the internet is all they need learn differently very early on!

    Cheers,
    Adrienne
     
  18. Guest

    Guest Guest

    As a librarian in Florida I have to agree that the Nova libraries are superb, however it is important to remember that the Sherman library (the main library) is a cooperative effort between Nova and Broward county and serves both populations.

    Librarian support is vitally important. If you find a good librarian treasure him or her as they will be one of your most valuable resources. In fact I became a librarian after another career because I was impressed by a local librarian (who has since left for another career). There are any number of bad disinterested librarians -avoid them like the plague. You can tell within a few seconds. If you ask the librarian for books about X and they immediatly send you to the shelves they are probably a bad librarian. If they engage you in a reference interview to find out more about your question even if it is to find out if you want print or electronic resources then they are well on their way to becoming a great asset to you.

    People often forget that there are many library resources that are available to them through the Library of Congress (at loc.gov) and the various state libraries. Florida has a wonderful electronic collection at flelibrary.com from full text articles of current periodicals and back for several decades, to Sanborn's fire maps from 1921.
    Each state library has some collection available electronically. Check yours out you are paying for it.

    Local libraries will almost always be able to get materials you need, but do give them time it often takes several weeks for in state requests, much longer for international requests.

    Local state supported college and university libraries are open to the public. They very often have database access in the building (lexis-nexis, BNA, thompson/gale, and many many others) that would not be available to non-students from home.


    The program you are in makes a world of difference in how useful any library will be. The physical sciences and medicine have available a great wealth of information available online. If you are working toward a degree in History or Social Work you will not be as well served at a distance. I think it has a lot to do with the format of current research and how it is published, but then that would make a wonderful dissertation...how are the various disciplines served by distance library services.
     
  19. simon

    simon New Member

    It is interesting that although NCU offers some excellent student services that their library comes up short in terms of the number of databases available and the fact that students are required to pay for downloading non-NCU dissertations.

    http://www.ncu.edu/elrc/wl_template.asp?parent_id=94

    A comprehensive online library is essential to any distance learning degree program due to the fact that many students do not have the time or the opportunity (ie, they may live in remote areas with no or limited accessiblity to community libraries, or they may be frequent travelers) to avail themselves of brick and mortar libraries.
     

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