The Arizona Board of Regents says it wants the state's universities to have "the best remotely accessible library in the United States."
ABOR approved a $1.3 million Tri-University Electronic Library grant on Aug. 15 to help university libraries put more journals and books online and purchase new journals.
Online access to more library materials could also allow ASU, NAU and UA to offer more online degree programs, said Ted Christensen, associate executive director of the Arizona Regents University, a collaborative program between the three Arizona universities that promotes distance learning.
Approximately $1.1 million of the ABOR funding will go toward granting online access to the back files of professional journals and just under 3,000 books and professional monographs. Students should have online access to these materials within the next four months, Christensen said.
Interdisciplinary studies junior Chris Coleman said he supported increased online access to periodicals.
"Sometimes it's hard to find journals because they're not available online," he said.
Most of the back files and books selected to be included for increased online access will supplement current online degree programs.
Improved remote access to library materials will allow the universities to explore the possibility of offering additional online degree programs, Christensen said.
In the past, professors were hesitant to offer some programs online because students might not have adequate access to library resources to complete the degree, he added.
The improved online library would give students the ability to use ample library resources to complete several new programs over the Internet.
Some new programs that may be offered include engineering, information resources, a graduate nursing education program and a doctoral nursing program, Christensen said.
The remaining $200,000 of the grant will purchase scholarly journals for the three universities.
The Tri-University Electronic Library is being developed as part of a larger program, the Tri-University Scholar's Portal, which will give students easier access to resources at other Arizona universities.
The Scholar's Portal allows students at any Arizona university to access materials at the other two in-state schools through one account. The software for this program was developed through a $561,000 grant from ABOR through the Arizona Regents University allocated in July 2002, Christensen said.
Echo Surina, a first-year graduate student studying social work, said she thought many students would benefit from access to all three universities' libraries.
"There's more information if you have three universities that they're drawing from," she said.
The Scholar's Portal program has already been implemented at ASU and UA, and it will be in effect at NAU in the fall of 2004, Christensen said.
Reach the reporter at amanda.keim@asu.edu.
