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2 Library Services for Online Patrons Students: Opportunities and Challenges (2015) and Marcum’s Embracing Change: Adapting and Evolving Your Distance Learning Library Services to Meet the New ACRL Distance Learning Library Services Standards (2016). Guiding Documents In addition to the policies and procedures of your library and institution (more on that later), there are some external documents with which you will want to be familiar because these are guiding documents for you and your institution when it comes to evaluating and assessing your work. Read the Standards! The Standards for Distance Learning Library Services (2016) created by the Distance Learning Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), is a guiding document for academic libraries regarding services to online learn- ers (Hebert, 2016 Wharton, 2017). The Standards defi ne the expectations of a university library regarding services to online/distance learners, although other types of libraries serving online users can also benefi t from the Stan- dards ’ recommendations. The Standards cover important things to consider including: 1. Whom should online patrons contact if they need help? 2. What research and reference services does the organization provide? What should it provide? 3. What kinds of online resources are available? What should be made available? 4. What document and book delivery services are available? Do these meet the users’ needs? 5. How can you assess your library’s services to online patrons? The Standards are also a tool to help you if you need to argue for more resources or a change in policies that will better serve your population. While not a binding document, it does represent the level of service endorsed professionally by ACRL. The latest version of the Standards is available online. In addition to the Standards for Distance Learning Library Services , you may want to consult other relevant standards or guidelines. For example, if you serve patrons enrolled in an online nursing program, ALA’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Nursing (2013) would also be very important to your work. The complete list of ALA guidelines, standards, and frameworks is available at http://www.ala.org/tools/guidelines/standardsguidelines.