Librarians' Changing Role in Distance Education

Abstract Distance education is a learner-centered system of education. The librarians engage in developing and delivery of services in distance education relevant to both content and process. Librarians need to recognize the role of modern information technologies as learning resources in students' learning pursuits. This represents a major shift from a conventional model of the library-centered didactic style to a more learner-centered and task-based facilitating style. This change needs effective training of the professionals engaged in distance librari-anship. The paper analyzes the present day role of librarians in distance education in India; discusses the rationale for the training of librarians involved in distance education; and finds out the areas of training, and methods and strategies that are to be adopted in the distance education institutions in the country.