Arizona Board of Regents 2020 N. Central Avenue, Suite 230 Phoenix, AZ 85004 (602) 229-2500 Fax (602) 229-2555 www.abor.asu.edu

Media Release

September 3, 2003

For Immediate Release

Contact: Ted Christensen, Associate Executive Director for Arizona Regents University, (602) 229-2542, tedc@asu.edu

Tri-University Electronic Library Grant

Boosts Online Resources

Arizona Regents University granted $1.3 million to fund a Tri-University Electronic Library to create the best remotely accessible library in the United States. On August 15, 2003, the Arizona Board of Regents approved the grant to add significant resources to the library collections of ASU, NAU, and UA. Through the web, these resources will be available to online learners at their home or work location as well as to on-campus students.

These new scholarly resources, in conjunction with existing electronic collections already available from Arizona’s university libraries, will serve as a model to other universities and strengthen both current and future traditional and non-traditional academic programs for years into the future.

Remote access to significant library resources for the distance learning student paves the way for development of new online courses and programs. Broadband Internet access is growing rapidly with 43 million Americans accessing the web via broadband in July 2003. According to the Association for Interactive Marketing, this growth represents a 60% increase over July 2002.

The National Center for Educational Statistics released findings in July 2003 providing the most current national information available about distance education. The numbers include all two & four year institutions, public and private, and show a steady increase in the number of institutions becoming involved with distance education. The report indicates that 89% of the public four-year institutions offered distance education during 2000-2001. The study further reports 2.8 million enrollments in distance education courses offered by two & four year institutions nationally.

The Arizona Regents University grant allows for digital access to many of the same hardcopy library resources that on-campus student now use. The new digital materials are written and edited by international scholars with excellent technical and scientific credentials and wide research and teaching experience in their fields.

Additionally, the grant allows for the purchase of a collection of current books and scholarly publications. The collection of nearly 3,000 books was intentionally chosen to support existing university online programs in business, economics, management, computers, engineering, teacher preparation, and nursing.

The Tri-University Electronic Library project will be part of the Tri-University Scholars Portal project funded in July 2002 through the Arizona Regents University. The universities received a grant of $561,000 to develop the Scholars Portal, a common portal for access to information about all the resources of the university libraries from students’ desktop computers. Coupled with the Electronic Library, students will be able to receive access to a wide range of resources in full text format on their desktop, regardless of place or time.

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