Pests, Welcomed Guests, or Tolerated Outsiders? Attitudes of Academic Librarians Toward Distance Students from Unaffiliated Institutions.

Librarians are seeing increasing numbers of distance students from other institutions using proximal library facilities for their research. Academic librarians were surveyed to learn more about their altitudes toward these unaffiliated distance students. The 107 responses to the survey found that, overall, academic librarians reflected a service attitude. Few expressed overtly hostile attitudes, but there were concerns about the strains unaffiliated distance students put on their libraries' resources and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]