The Academic Support Services was an administrative unit active from 1972 to 2002. It included the Media Center (Library,) the Learning Lab (tutoring,) and Distance Learning. Maurice Utley held the position of Director from 1972 to 1997. Jimmie Bruce held the position of Director from January 2000 to August 2002. With his departure, the department ceased to exist as such, with the library, tutoring lab and Distance Learning units functioning as separate entities.
The Elizabethtown Community College Library opened when the college opened, in the fall of 1964. It was located in the Administration Building, encompassing the areas now filled by the Morrison Gallery, IECE classrooms and Japanese School offices and rooms. The first librarian, Betty Jane McFarland, was among the first employees hired. It fell to her to set up the library, acquire and catalog materials, and make sure the library was ready for students in September.
Like many libraries of the time, the ECC Library purchased, maintained and circulated audio-visual equipment and resources to instructors. It provided space and audio-visual equipment for student use. It also became the distance learning center, receiving KET telecourse recordings, providing equipment for viewing, eventually taking over the taping of telecourses. In 1968 the college decided to rename the library, designating it a Media Center, in order to better highlight the resources and services provided by the Center. Don Wallace, English and Art History instructor, was named director of the Media Center. He stayed in this role until 1972, when the Learning Lab and Media Center merged to form the Academic Support Services unit. Maurice Utley, English instructor and Learning Lab director, became Director of Academic Support Services, a position she held until her retirement in 1997. Ann Thompson succeeded her as Library Director until her retirement in 2016. Katie Meyer has served as library director from 2017 to the present.
Administration began planning for a new library building in the early 70s. Funding issues delayed the project until the early 1980s. The Learning Resources Center building was completed in the spring of 1984. The Media Center moved from the Administration Building to the Learning Resources Center over the summer of 1984, opening its doors in the fall of 1984.
The LRC was named the James M. Collier Learning Resources Center in 1996. The library portion of the LRC became known as the Collier Library in 2019.
The Learning Lab was originally called the Learning Resource Center. It was housed adjacent to the Media Center in the Administration Building. The lab opened its doors in 1970, funded by a Kentucky Department of Education grant. Initially it was only open to students from the vocational school and ECC students who were enrolled in career-oriented programs. The first director was Maurice Utley, who was hired as English and theater instructor in 1964.
In 1972 Don Wallace stepped away from the Media Center and Maurice Utley became the director of Academic Support Services unit which encompassed both the Media Center and the LRC. In 1973 the president of UK, Otis Singletary, visited UK expressly to view the Learning Resources Center. Shortly thereafter Ms Utley sent a message saying that all ECC students could use the LRC “due to increased University funding.”
The LRC became the Learning Lab in 1984 when it moved to the new Learning Resources Center building. Maurice continued to oversee both the Learning Lab and the Media Center, in her role as Academic Support Services director. Pamela Harper became Director of the Learning Lab when Maurice Utley retired in 1997.
ECTC’s Distance Learning history begins with the KET telecourses. KET began providing televised classes in the 60s. The Media Center provided access to these courses by receiving and circulating the recordings and making viewing equipment available. By the 1980s the Media Center was responsible for taping those classes as well as housing and circulating them.
In the early 90s UK began offering satellite classes. These courses were transmitted live via satellite to TV screens. Students could contact the instructor during class times by phone. In the mid-1990s interactive television classrooms were installed. These classrooms were set up so that an instructor could teach students in that classroom while seeing and interacting with students in ITV classrooms at other locations. During this time Distance Learning moved out of the Media Center and into a suite of rooms in the Administration Building. The coordinator still reported to the Academic Support Services director and handled much of the Media Center's audio-visual maintenance and services.
By the early 2000s online course software such as BlackBoard opened new avenues of instruction. Distance Learning operated independently, with the coordinator reporting directly to the Provost. The ECTC Archives closed collection of materials with the move from print to digital communications and documentation.
Boxes 1 and 2 contain materials pertaining, as much as possible, only to the library and Media Center. Box 3 serves as a bridge box, containing materials that combine the Media Center, Learning Lab and Distance Learning in single documents. Examples include the Academic Support Services newsletters. Box 4 contains materials pertaining solely to the Learning Lab/Learning Resource Center. Box 5 contains materials that pertain to the early formats of Distance Learning.
Folder 1. About the Library
Folder 2. History
Folder 3. Furnishings and equipment.
Folder 4. Automation
Folder 5. Information on checkpoint system (library security system.)
Folder 6. Library floor plans, pre- and post-LRC. Floor plans are also located in folder 2
Folder 7. Library memos. 1968-1969. Don Wallace is Coordinator of Instructional Media. The 1969 memos begin to use the term Media Center though not consistently
Folder 8. Media Center. University of Kentucky. Elizabethtown Community College. Newsletter. First issue is August 25, 1969. 29 newsletters. Last issue is April 27, 1970. Topics range from general reports and trivia pertaining to education and instructional technology; resource highlights; KET highlights
Folder 9. Memos to faculty and staff. 1970 to 1979; most are from 71 to 73. Don Wallace begins to refer to himself as Supervisor, Academic Support Services. Maurice Utley takes over in July 1973. A memo from B.J. McFarland, dated September 11, 1973, indicates that the Media Center is starting an archives
Folder 10. Memos to faculty and staff, 1980s
Folder 11. Memos to faculty and staff; memos to Academic Support Services personnel; invitations to events at the Director’s residence; a memo that states that the Media Center will close the week before the break to give staff time to do processing work; a memo that states that Ann Thompson is the Library Director, effective August 18, 1997. The memo does not describe her as Acting Director. 1990s
Folder 12. Scattered emails sent between 2000 and 2013. Most of these are internal; some are external announcements to faculty
Folder 13. Announcement that the library is starting an archives. September 11, 1973; archives policy 2018
Folder 14. Library handouts.
Folder 15. Lists of periodicals. 1969 – 1980 (scattered)
Folder 16. Budget. 1970 to 2001 (very scattered)
Folder 1. Overviews, reports, communications, philosophy, personnel with job duties, policies and procedures, report for July 1971 to June 1972; report for July 1972 to June 1972; organizational charts, floor plans. Includes the 1967 memo from Don Wallace and the undated memo from Maurice Utley as they represent the foundational beginnings of the LRC
Folder 2. Flyers, memos. 1976 to 2011. Includes handout titled Educational Excellence Center. This is the Learning Lab’s new name. The handout Is not dated but the EEC was created in 2020
Folder 3. Materials lists. Most items not dated; dates include 1972 and 1974
Folder 4. Statistics. 1981 to 2005 (scattered)
Folder 5. Surveys. 1970 – 1990 (scattered)
Folder 1. Memos, emails, flyers from 1992 to 1995
Folder 2. Memos, emails, flyers from 1996. Includes schedules of DL classes offered by UK and materials from LIS 690, a course on distance learning technology offered by UK’s Library and Information Sciences department
Folder 3. Emails, faxes, schedules, training materials from 1997
Folder 4. Communications from 1998.
Folder 5. Materials from 2000. Includes document entitled “Home College Model for the Delivery of Online Distance Learning in the KCTCS.”
Folder 6. Materials from 2004 to 2008. Includes flyer for 6th annual summer institute, held at ECTC in May 2004; agenda for 9th annual Distance Learning Summer Institute (held at ECTC); report on faculty survey of Distance Learning, Fall 2004; some meeting minutes of the Distance Learning Committee;
Folder 7. Materials from 2013 to 2015
Bound publications