Providing for Distance Students

Julie Willems

Dr. Julie Willems (http://wikieducator.org/User:Julie_Willems) holds qualifications in nursing, the Humanities, and education, and was a distance learner for 20 years. She has worked across all Australian education sectors. Her research interests include the media and technology of formal and informal learning (including the social media of Web 2.0, mobile learning and virtual worlds), in addition to educational equity and access for the disadvantaged. Julie currently works as an e-learning designer/educational developer in the Department of Rural and Indigenous Health, Monash University, and is on the national Executive of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA - http://www.odlaa.org).

Siong Ng

Siong Ng is the current Library Manager at Carey Baptist College in Auckland.  Her research project on the information seeking behaviour of distance students in theological colleges in N.Z. was funded by Paul Szentirmay Special Librarianship scholarship.

Alice Ferguson

Alice Ferguson worked in libraries in Scotland and the Republic of South Africa before emigrating to Australia with her husband and two sons in 1999. Alice has had the privilege of working in Charles Sturt University for twenty years where she has held many positions. Her current position is Director Client Services and Deputy to the Executive Director in the Division of Library Services. Her portfolio covers the span of client-facing services - Access Services, Information & Liaison Services, Faculty Liaison Services, Collection Services and Information Literacy.  The Library Web Team sits under her area of responsibility. Alice has a Master of Arts Degree (Literature) from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and a Postgraduate Degree in Librarianship from Robert Gordon’s University, also in Scotland. Alice is located in Canberra.Alice welcomes the opportunity provided by ANZTLA to contribute to the discussion around the opportunities and challenges in delivering library services to off campus students in this digital age.