Abstract
Central Michigan University has hosted 11 Off -Campus Library Services Conferences since 1982. This paper studies the proceedings of the 11 conferences to identify patterns of research. The authors were interested in determining how the field of distance learning library services has changed over that 22 year period as evidenced by the topics presented and the types of papers included in the proceedings. The authors analyzed the contributed papers and assigned those papers to specific subject tracks. The authors also considered the sources used by the presenters in order to identify works that may be considered seminal in this field. Distance learning librarianship is a field that has grown and matured, but there has been little research to date into the core literature of the field. This paper attempts to identify some of those core works through an analysis of the citations used in these sets of proceedings.

Beth is Assistant Professor and Digital Library Services Librarian at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She has been involved with distance learning librarianship for six years. In addition to her other professional activities, she has attended two previous OCLS Conferences, including a presentation in 2004, and worked on Alexander Slade’s Library Services for Distance Learning: The Fourth Bibliography in the past four years. This has whetted her interest in the scholarship in the field of distance learning librarianship.

Jack is the Director of Library Services at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois. He has been involved with distance learning librarianship in one way or another since about 1984. Research has been one of his interests for awhile. He served as member and chair of the DLS Research Committee for several years, and also worked on the establishment of the LAMA Research Committee. His interest in this particular area of research is a result of his curiosity about what we were doing collectively in terms of documenting our work.

Oklahoma State has 21,000 students. Benedictine University has 3,000 students.