A significant number of distance students report they "stray" from their home universities by using local libraries, despite the fact that distance education librarians work hard to provide customized resources and services tailored to their programs and needs. Are public libraries and special libraries able to meet the research needs of distance learners, or are these students being underserved? This article explores why distance students may choose non-academic libraries over academic libraries, and the impact of this use--on local libraries serving unaffiliated distance learners, and on academic libraries with potentially underutilized distance library services.