Universities list several reasons for developing online programs. The U.S. Department of Education listed meeting student demand for flexible schedules (68%) as “the most common factor” in making the decision to provide online courses. Other reasons included providing access for students who would otherwise not have access (67%), making more courses available (46%) and seeking to increase enrollment (45%) (Parsad & Lewis, 2008). Financial incentives are also a Though current enrollments are low in the new 100% online programs (1,500 students) at ASU, they are growing and new programs are being created quickly. ASU currently has 35 fully online programs; an additional eight programs for freshmen are slated to launch in fall 2010. (For a current list of online programs, see http://asuonline.asu.edu/programs/.) However, growth of online programs presents a challenge for the libraries. As we seek to maintain services to this growing distance population, we must consider the flscal realities of providing services and materials to students who may live far from an ASU campus, including library instruction, reference and research support, interlibrary loan, electronic document delivery, and ship-ping books. ASU Libraries emphasizes that the library must support online
programs, but limited resources dictate that the library cannot be the gratis partner in the online enterprise. The challenge is to develop a model of library support for online education that is sustainable, yet will support the principles of academic inquiry and access that are embedded in the ethics
of the academic library.