Library Support for Distance Learning at Colorado Christian University

Abstract

Colorado Christian University (CCU) is a four-year liberal arts school founded in 1914 as Denver Bible Institute. Its student population currently exceeds 8,400 students (about 3,500 FTE), enrolled in one of two colleges: the on-campus/in-seat College of Undergraduate Studies (CUS—50+ degree programs) and the College of Adult and Graduate Studies (CAGS—80+ degree programs), which offers classes at extension centers and online. The CAGS programs currently represent about 75% of the enrollment. The Clifton Fowler Library, named after the founder of the Denver Bible Institute, currently employs four full-time librarians: the dean of the library, an information services librarian, a technical services librarian, and a research and instruction librarian. The librarians are supported by a library services assistant, a part-time reference and web library coordinator, and up to nine student employees. The library has been methodically and strategically improving its collections and services towards the increasing off-campus student population. First, CCU has increased the number of online journal databases to the current 142, ranging from general databases such as EBSCO Academic Complete to specialized ones such as the Atla Religion Database with AtlaSerials. Simultaneously, the library has reduced its physical holdings for journals as they became available online. The library also conducted an overlap analysis of its resources and discovered significant duplication in two large databases, one published by EBSCO and the other by ProQuest. After evaluating various aspects of the two, the ProQuest database was canceled. Naturally, some titles were lost; however, the library invested those savings to upgrade the EBSCO database, resulting in a significant increase of unique resources without additional expenses. Second, since 2018, the library has shifted significant resources from physical to electronic book purchasing. The library previously preferred physical resources for CUS patrons and electronic resources for CAGS patrons. However, the increasing duplication of academic programs in both colleges, and the commonly-cited advantages of e-books (title is available 24/7, accessible from anywhere, can’t be lost/damaged, etc.) led to a change in policy: the library now purchases the electronic format whenever it is available and will purchase physical titles only if the electronic format is unavailable and if they are requested by CUS faculty or students. This has led to a reversal of acquisition numbers; while CCU purchased more physical than electronic books in 2017–18, the library now acquires electronic books at a 2:1 ratio over physical books. Third, in order to increase the e-book collection, CCU has increased the number of vendor and publishing partners. CCU has added OverDrive in order to provide a limited number of academic titles to patrons. While the access models offered by OverDrive are less preferable compared to others, this move has allowed CCU to provide access to e-books that are not available through other vendors. CCU has also established agreements with other vendors, including various university presses, Project Muse, JSTOR, etc. By increasing its base of vendors, CCU has improved its ability to purchase products on the best-possible terms: vendors and publishers sometimes differ in either