---

The distance education is gaining momentum all over the world. To meet the needs of growing distance patrons, the importance of libraries in distance education has been realized in the developed as well developing countries like Pakistan. In distance education, students reside far away from their teachers and university campus. The emerging clients of libraries demand the same quality of library services as the on-campus students availing the library services. The book presents the satisfaction of the distance community; teachers, tutors and students, about resources and services of Allama Iqbal Open University s libraries network located in four provinces and AJK territory. The resources, services to distance community and challenges to distance librarians working in the libraries of the university are also highlighted. The book is very useful for the distance librarians and administrators serving in the distance education sectors of the developing countries. The international online databases vendors may take help in decision making to expand their business in the developing countries like Pakistan. The book is also useful for the distance researchers all over the world.

---

Muhammad Arif, MPhil: Studied Library and Information Science at University of the Punjab, Lahore-Pakistan. Lecturer in the Department of Library and Information Science at Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad-Pakistan since 12 August 2000. E-mail: Muhammad_arifpk@yahoo.com

---