ABSTRACT
The need for media resource centres for distance education is not limited even in the United Kingdom to the Open University. The availability of modern, well-equipped media resource centres will become increasingly important to distance education students if technological developments are to be exploited to the full. In the future, it is likely that technologies such as PRESTEL (or Optel) and video-disc, like Cyclops, first be experimented with in local centres or summer schools for distance teaching purposes before spreading to home use. The media resource centres are likely to be in conventional educational institutions, although there are possibilities for public libraries, or the newly created Information Technology centres, or even Consumer Association or Citizen's Advice Bureaux's High Street shops. Whether though the distance education provision is for the NEC, Open Colleges, Open Tech or the Open University, it will be necessary for the maximum co-operative use to be made of already existing teaching, library and media resources.
