This paper will look at the services presently offered to distance students by libraries within the categories of professional staff, access to resources, reference assistance, and library user instruction. It will then offer the argument that these services could be improved by developing embedded librarians within online academic courses as a…

Proposes that academic librarians use constructivist learning theory, primarily composition theory, to develop a pedagogy for the reference desk. Implies that reference is a form of teaching, and that to maximize their educational effectiveness, academic librarians need to approach reference transactions as academic conferences where teaching and…