Providing high quality information services to physically remote users is a challenge for any academic library, even if the “remote” users are only 19 miles distant. Since neither the Library nor the Campus has the resources to replicate the Pollak Library and its collections at El Toro, creative means are necessary to provide students there with needed materials in support of classroom instruction.

A small library existed at the Mission Viejo site and it has been expanded to some extent at the El Toro Campus, particularly with respect to the number of computer workstations. Other than a small core of reference books and a handful of general interest periodicals, no print collection is being built there. Heavy reliance is placed upon direct access to citation and full-text electronic information resources, and document delivery of book material and journal articles not available in electronic format. The availability of electronic versions of desired materials is of tremendous benefit to a developing site such as the El Toro Campus. In fact, without such access it would probably be impossible, or prohibitively expensive, to aspire to the provision of equal library service at the Fullerton and El Toro campuses.

However, contrary to the not infrequently heard view that “everything I require is now available electronically,” much scholarly material needed to support the curriculum does not exist in electronic form. Thus, unless instruction at El Toro is to be impoverished by reliance only upon electronic sources of information, mechanisms are needed to supply students there with the same print materials available to their compatriots on the Fullerton Campus. The mechanisms for doing this are labor intensive, somewhat so for the requesting student, but especially so for the library staff involved in making them work.

Interlibrary loan services are critical to any academic library, and especially for those, such as CSUF, not funded at research library levels. Fullerton’s interlibrary loan volume is the third highest within the CSU system. In 2001/02, the Pollak Library responded to 49,611 requests for the borrowing and lending of needed material. While electronic finding aids and delivery mechanisms (e.g., electronic delivery of full text) have made interlibrary loan transactions speedier and more efficient, these mechanisms still require staff to locate, request, wrap, unwrap, pull from the stacks, photocopy, mail, fax, notify requesters, etc., etc.

So, with respect to interlibrary loan, you might ask what is different about El Toro? Much. Absent a print collection, a very high percentage of library transactions at El Toro involve interlibrary loan or document delivery. On the Fullerton campus the Pollak Library print collection makes possible greater reliance on self-service. If the Pollak Library owns a book or subscribes to a journal containing an article needed by a student, the student on the Fullerton campus finds the material in the stacks and either checks it out or makes a photocopy—using his or her time, and money. If the Pollak Library owns materials needed by a student at El Toro, he or she requests it and library staff retrieve the material from the stacks, make the necessary photocopy, and send to El Toro—using the Library’s time and money. In a nutshell, this is the explanation as to why providing information services to remote users is inherently more expensive than comparable services provided students on the “home” campus. The remote user suffers from a greater time delay in securing information, but this is compensated for by the fact that the “lending” library does much more of the work and absorbs more of the costs.

An added dynamic is the relative closeness of the Fullerton and El Toro Campuses. Students can take classes at both sites and, indeed, are somewhat encouraged to do so as the Fullerton campus grows more congested. Students are not slow to take advantage of the fact that they can receive higher levels of service at El Toro, even if they are also taking classes on the Fullerton campus. The Pollak Library has not yet closed this loophole, but it will need to do so if the volume of such “workarounds” continues to increase. Automated mechanisms for sorting “Fullerton and El Toro” from “El Toro only” requestors could be utilized if there were an appropriate code in the patron record designating the requestor as “El Toro only.” However, this information is not currently provided to the Pollak Library by the campus.

The Pollak Library has built an impressive record of being proactive in taking advantage of changing information technology. A quick glance at the number and subject range of electronic resources available through the “Find Articles & More” section of our Web site demonstrates this. The Library is constantly being presented with new electronic resources, changing ways of searching them, and an expanding array of possible information delivery options. It will continue to take advantage of the best that technology provides within available budget resources. In this respect providing library services to students at the El Toro Campus is part of a larger challenge. There are, however, special aspects to providing library services at El Toro (and to other “remote” users) equal to those provided at Fullerton that will increase in importance as enrollment there grows in the coming years.