ABSTRACT
The terms ‘distance education’ and ‘e-learning’ have gained currency in higher education circles in Japan during the past few years. This trend can be briefly summarised as ‘what they want, when they want it, and where they want it’, using available network technologies. The technological diversity of distance education consists of telecourses, audio and video teleconferences, closed broadcast and cable television systems, microwave compressed and full motion video, fibre optic networks, and satellite-based and computer networks. In all, twenty-two delivery systems have been categorised (Jones, 1997). Computers and networks can make library services more readily available for distance learners. The need to provide access to higher education at a distance has been recognised as a top priority in many countries. Despite the rush by academic planners to mount distance educa-tional programmes, the impact on university libraries has been minimal until recently (Lee, 1999). In particular, Japan's university libraries had not begun to identify the special demands and problems of this new group of learners, although Japan has a long history of correspondence courses at the level of higher education.
