Today’s distance students can find library resources online within a few minutes, but in the sixties they waited up to ten days for the postie to deliver books. This week Massey University Library celebrated fifty years of supporting distance students by launching a new book that traces the history of the Distance Library Service.

Your books are in the mail: Fifty years of Distance Library Service at Massey University, written by science librarian Bruce White, was launched at Turitea Library on Wednesday 15th June. Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International) Ingrid Day spoke at the launch, which was attended by Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey, past and present librarians, and university staff.

Professor Day said that the Library is pivotal to the university’s distance education programme. “Students consistently rate Distance Library Service as one of the highest valued services in the university,” she said.

Your books are in the mail describes the service’s beginnings at Caccia Birch House in 1960, with just one librarian, begged and borrowed equipment, and the Principal of the Palmerston North University College stocking the shelves at night. Almost 1700 books were delivered to students in that first year, establishing a service that is still recognisable in its essentials today.

Distance students now have access to all the same online resources, such as ejournals and ebooks, as internal students. Print books are still vitally important – in 2007 almost 130,000 were delivered to students’ letterboxes, often just a day or two after online requesting.

Government reports noted in 1925, and again in 1959, that a well-equipped library service is an essential element of university education. Mr White says that “the service that has been created for Massey’s distance students over fifty years deserves recognition for having more than met the challenge.”

Your books are in the mail may be purchased for $20 using the form on the Library website.

Your books are in the mail is also available as an ebook here (through Massey Research Online).