<I>The Library Component of Distance Learning..." - Texas Library Journal

The Library Component of Distance Learning: Extended Campus Services - The Junction Experience

William Johnson

Introduction

Libraries have enjoyed a long and colorful history in their efforts to deliver information services to patrons outside the library. These services have ranged from bookmobiles to remote air drops [1]. The advent of electronic networks and interlibrary cooperation now permit vast amounts of information to be delivered to patrons without their having to set foot in the institution where the information originated or, for that matter, on the same continent. Faxes, phone lines, computers, and satellites constitute an awesome telecommunications infrastructure that stretches around the globe to link individuals effectively and efficiently.

The Texas Tech University Library is actively involved in many of these developments along with many other schools in Texas. Recently, we have undertaken an effort to provide leadership and support in the delivery of information services to the rural community of Junction through the Texas Tech Center located in that community. The Center offers a variety of seminars, workshops, and academic courses ranging from art to biology. The Center's library owns materials that support these classes such as field guides to the local flora and fauna as well as texts in ceramics and painting. Due to a number of physical, financial, and electronic constraints, however, information services are presently quite limited. In fact, some attendees at the Junction Center are not even aware that the Center's library exists. Lack of awareness may be the greatest barrier in the delivery of information services to Junction patrons who are considered distance students by the University Library in Lubbock [2].

The purpose of this article is to analyze present library use patterns and to determine the level of interest in upgrading information services to support programs and courses offered at the Center. This has been accomplished in two phases. The first phase consisted of my analysis of the collection, conducted while attending a herpetology course at the Center during the May 1995 intersession. The second phase was a survey of faculty who have conducted classes or workshops at Junction to determine their interest in expanding the information services offered at the Junction Center in association with the Texas Tech University Library in Lubbock.

History

The original idea for a university-affiliated campus in Junction began with Kimble County residents and Gibb Gilcrist, the president of Texas A & M who served from 1944 to 1948. Many interested individuals in Kimble County and at Texas A & M worked hard to fulfill the dream of opening an adjunct campus in Junction. The original purpose of this facility was to prepare incoming freshmen for the rigors of a college education in a rural environment where helpful faculty would be available to counsel students in the transition from high school to college. The Junction site also provided a suitable location for field- based studies in such disciplines as civil engineering, geology, and biology. Located on 411 acres on the South Llano River, the Junction Center began operating in 1951 under the direction of Cliff H. Ransdell. In addition to the academic programs already mentioned, Texas A & M operated a seismological station and initiated research into the native pecans that grow on the site. In spite of some difficulty with continuing research into these areas, the campus was transferred to Texas Tech University in 1971. The transfer took effect on September 1, 1971, as prescribed in House Bill 1328, which passed both houses of Congress in May of that year. Bill Oden became the first director under Tech administration.

Many of the faculty and staff who have worked at Junction have done so for many years. A great variety of people and events have contributed to making the "Junction experience" something special. The Center has been used for fund raising activities, society meetings, retreats, picnics, seminars, scouting programs, and much more. One faculty member spoke with great fondness of a time when his class would return from a hard day of collecting specimens to the soft melody of a concert performed by a music class and later view the art created by yet another class. Stories were shared and lives enriched.

Unfortunately, there is little mention in the available documents of the role of the Center's library in the "Junction experience." Many of the art books were acquired through generous donations by several parties such as Gary Goree (1992), Reid Hastie (1989), and Davis Publications (1985). Science texts, field guides, encyclopedias, journals, and government documents are also found in the collection. Art books out number those in other disciplines while material on the life sciences comes in second. The Center's library personnel have worked hard to establish close working relationships with other, local as well as distant, libraries such as Kimble County Public Library and the Texas Tech University Library.

New books are purchased by the Texas Tech University Library based on requests by the staff in Junction. These items include general reference works, field guides, and books about Central Texas history. The collection is used by Kimble County residents as well as registered students.

Getting Started

During my first "Junction experience" at a staff retreat in April 1995, we wrestled with some of the details of our new academic status. Junction Center Director, Dr. Len Ainsworth, challenged us, as information providers, to explore new ways to deliver information services. Our new academic status, with its emphasis on professional development, along with the need to foster improved relations with the Biology Department, offered me a suitable challenge as the liaison to this department. I proposed to make a first hand assessment of the information service delivery in Junction. This meant enrolling in an academic course (herpetology) taught by a member of the Biology Department, examining the local collection, testing access to TechPac (Tech's online library catalog), and surveying faculty to determine their level of interest in expanded information services at the Center. Fortunately, the library administration at Tech supported my interest in these matters and I was allowed to have a second "Junction experience."

The latter experience was much different than the first. I gained a new appreciation for the role of collegiality from the pitcher's mound during a heated softball tournament and in setting traps for one another on a canoe trip down the South Llano River. I also held a number of discussions with faculty around the dinner table about what a "Junction experience" was all about. Of course, it was not all fun and games. There were hours in the library evaluating the shelves, remote computer access discussions with staff and local librarians, and the best part of all was looking for and picking up lots of snakes. As a botanist, I had to question my sanity more than once while poking around in the dark for water moccasins.

Distance Learning - Initial Observations

Distance learning often involves a physical separation between the student and teacher with the delivery of information facilitated by an electronic or multimedia resource such as videos. This is not the case at Junction where teacher and student are both present at the same campus. However, they may be separated from much of the information resources that would enhance their off-campus educational experience. Many of these resources are now available through electronic networks or other information delivery mechanisms, including overnight mail, fax, e-mail, and the Internet.

In addition to improving my snake-handling skills, my initial tasks centered on staff training and technical matters relevant to computerized access between the Junction Center and the University Library on the Tech campus. I concluded that the local staff should receive training in the use of the library catalog, periodical indexes, and the Internet. They were very interested in learning more about their information options. I spoke with the public and school librarians in Junction and they too were quite interested in this sort of training, looking to Texas Tech for leadership in this area. Remote access was facilitated via two modems and two Macintosh computers. The staff knew how to use the modem but they needed training in how to use each database once the connection was made, which meant they needed campus computer accounts.

The costs of remote access for students and staff caused some concern among administrators, prompting suggestions for charging patrons for connect time to recover these costs. More cost efficient service providers should be queried, including TENET, regarding some level of service to this area. Cost sharing options could also be explored with others locally interested in Internet access. This is the age of resource partnerships. Limited funding fosters creativity and resourcefulness. The collective efforts of many interested parties would serve to advance the level of electronic information services provided to remote portions of Central Texas.

Currently, books at the Center library do not circulate. A modified circulation policy would be helpful, at least for some titles such as field guides. The local public library (Kimbel County) allows Junction Center students to borrow its materials even though they are not county residents. On the technical side, I found problems with the computer emulation package since the University Library catalog was able to be viewed but was nonfunctional. Also, World Wide Web access via Lynx, a nongraphical browser, would not function.

Most important, the information needs of the Junction Center need to be moved to a more visible position. Several options could facilitate greater visibility, such as incorporating the Center's library into the collection development policies created by the University Library. Local staff could also become involved in making book selections. Basically, awareness of how the Center library can facilitate information access beyond Junction should be expanded to improve the quality of education offered through the Junction Center.

Survey

Forty-one individuals were surveyed and 25 responded, for a 61% response rate. These individuals taught classes, led field trips, or conducted workshops and retreats at the Junction facility between May 1994 and May 1995. These groups divide nicely into three categories: Fine Arts faculty, education professionals, and science groups. The survey was used to determine how information needs were met by academic faculty and group leaders and to assess interest in expanding local information services. (The survey instrument is available at http://www.ttn.edu/~library/subject/bill/junction.htm.)

The survey summary provides a basic picture of information delivery by Center faculty and group leaders in three sections: Group Characteristics (Table 1), Survey Parameters (Table 2), and Information Provision (Table 3).

**Table 1**: Group Characteristics: Surveyed respondents conducting programs at the TTU Center in Junction from May 1994 to May 1995.
Group Type	Average # of Students/Class	Average # of Days in Junction
Art Faculty	10	15
Education Professionals	39	10
Science Faculty	38	6

Table 1 suggests that those participating in art programs enjoy a higher quality "Junction experience" due to the smaller class size and longer stay. Science groups appear to offer a more concentrated program of study to larger classes. Educators also have large groups but typically extend the program duration so that it falls about half-way between those in humanities and science curriculums.

**Table 2**: Survey Parameters (%): Response rate, local library awareness, and interest in expanding electronic information services.
Response Rate	Awareness of Junction Center Library	Interest in Access to Electronic Information Services
Art Faculty (60)	100	88
Education Professionals (85)	91	73
Science Faculty (39)	60	20

While all of the art teachers are aware of the Center's library, only 60% of the science faculty know it exists. This may be due to the fact that the typical art class is on campus for over twice as long as a normal science class. Artists also have a greater interest in expanding the availability of browsing the Internet, probably due to the increasing popularity of graphical browsers such as Netscape and the growing number of online exhibits displayed on the World Wide Web. Science classes spend a great deal of their time in the field collecting specimens rather than surfing the Web. Yet, more electronic field guides for the flora and fauna of Texas appear on the Internet every year, so it may be only a matter of time before the laptop edges out the printed field guide since video and sounds are now available enhancements. The higher response rate among education professionals may reflect the higher appreciation for survey instruments of this kind among social science groups.

**Table 3**: Information Provision (%): Library use in support of the educational programs at the TTU Center in Junction: Center's library, faculty's or leader's institutional library, Kimble County Library, and departmental or personal collections. More than one library may have been used.
Junction Center Library	Institutional Library	Kimble County Library	Department or Personal Collection
Art Faculty (33)	33	0	77
Education Professionals (27)	27	18	55
Science Faculty (40)	40	20	80

According to Table 3, most faculty meet the information needs of their Junction students with their personal or departmental collections. It is not surprising that few would use the County library, but higher levels of use were expected for the Center's library as well as the faculty member's institutional library. We may have also predicted higher levels of use from artists due to greater levels of awareness and more opportunity, but this was not the case. Faculty who, on average, stay the shortest number of days, used the Center's library the most to teach their classes.

One obvious action to increase use would be to allow the Center library's material to circulate. The most limiting factor to use of the Junction Center library, however, is probably the concentrated nature of the curriculum itself. It may also be that suitable materials are less likely to be found there since the University Library considers it better stewardship of limited resources to place the more popular texts on the main campus in Lubbock where students access them year round rather than in Junction where the courses are brief, leaving the items less used or unused for most of the year.

The University Library supports the Junction curriculum in various ways, such as by allowing faculty special circulation privileges of some materials like bound journals. Document delivery options are also provided such as the Federal Express delivery of books and the faxing of articles. Electronic information services include some full text books and journals and access to online bibliographic databases in all subjects. Many of these information sources may be received by e-mailed instantly and reference queries may also be submitted via electronic mail.

Conclusion

There is a certain mystique about the "Junction experience." This involves many things ranging from peculiar geologic phenomena to the charm afforded a remote location such as quiet evenings, the chance to get away from it all, and the simple pleasure of watching the fireflies glow. Yet in the midst of this Central Texas paradise there is an educational center, complete with a library that supports a vast array of programs and interests.

Sophisticated technologies have spawned growing interest in how to incorporate these electronic tools into the educational programs of remote sites like Junction. Based upon a survey of faculty and other program leaders, such interest varies as widely as the programs offered there. Those involved with courses in the humanities such as art were the most interested (88%). Social science groups such as educators were slightly less interested (73%). Science faculty were least interested (20%). The electronic services most often mentioned as useful to teaching in Junction were e-mail and Internet browsing/searching. Artists expressed a clear preference for equipment capable of displaying graphical images. Few expressed interest in searching remote library catalogs or journal databases even when materials from those collections could be delivered to the Junction campus in a timely fashion such as via Federal Express (books) or faxing (articles). One reason for the mixed level of interest is the concentrated nature of a Junction program. This is especially true of many of the science programs where students are in the field much of the day and in class much of the evening. Many faculty are content to provide their own materials to support their courses. The next step in this evaluation process may be to survey Junction students and compare the results with this faculty survey.

Though the results are mixed, there is sufficient interest among faculty to warrant consideration of upgrading the electronic information services at the Junction Center. Now is the time to embrace the inevitable advancements in the electronic delivery of information to remote sites such as Junction and manage them in such a way that the original charm which attracts so many is not lost but finds a balance in the new scheme of things.

Notes

Ferrel, Nancy. "Alaska's flying library". Library Journal 108(6):554-555, 15 March 1983.
Birdsall, Doug. "Distance students and the Texas Tech University Library: an obligation and an opportunity". Memorandum, Administration - University Library, Texas Tech University on 7 March 1996; presented at the Visions for the Southwest Conference, Lub bock, Texas on 4 March 1996. page 3.