[OPLINLIST] Changes to statewide databases for the next five years

[Stephen Hedges]

INTERNAL USE FOR OPLIN/OhioLINK/INFOhio PARTICIPANTS ONLY:

Last Friday, the State Library of Ohio awarded a $1.6 million federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) LSTA grant to Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO) to support the purchase of statewide databases in the Ohio Web Library collection.

LCO (OhioLINK, INFOhio, OPLIN, and the State Library) negotiates five-year contracts with statewide database vendors, and the current set of contracts will expire at the end of this June. To select the statewide databases for the next five years, starting 1 July 2013, OPLIN, INFOhio, and OhioLINK each appointed five members to a joint database advisory committee, joined by one person appointed by the State Library. Beginning last August, the committee reviewed the fundamental reasons for purchasing statewide databases and then assisted with the writing of an Invitation to Negotiate (ITN) that was posted on 20 December 2012. Thirty-five information vendors submitted proposals for over 120 products by the February 15 deadline. The committee then met in person on 11 March 2013 to discuss all the proposals and select vendors and products for further negotiation.

Because the state budgets of the LCO partners are still under discussion in the legislature, we are still technically in active negotiations and cannot sign contracts. It is important that we stress at this time that this is an internal communication that is only provided to help you with initial planning. It is important to remember that final decisions will not be announced until all legal requirements of the ITN are met. This is especially critical for you to remember in response to any direct communication from current or potential vendors.

Six resources are recommended for continuation in the collection:
1. EBSCO core databases, central to the Ohio Web Library collection, including Biography Reference Bank;
2. LearningExpress Library, and
3. Job and Career Accelerator, with some resources that were previously in LEL (primarily the computer tutorials) now moved into JCA;
4. World Book, including the Early World of Learning and now the new Academic World Book;
5. Ancestry Library Edition; and
6. Science Online (from Infobase).

Five resources are recommended for addition to the collection:
1. Literary Reference Center (from EBSCO) fills a need first identified by the 2008 LCO review committee and re-affirmed by the 2013 committee.
2. Workforce Skills for 21st Century Success (from LearningExpress) provides resources to boost basic workplace and job search skills.
3. Consumer Health Complete (from EBSCO) provides a comprehensive resource for consumer-oriented health content.
4. Points of View Reference Center (from EBSCO) helps users evaluate controversial topics.
5. Science Reference Center (from EBSCO) complements the existing Science Online database.

Finally, four resources are recommended for deletion from the collection on June 30:
1. The ART Collection was considered to be unnecessary because museums are increasingly making images of their holdings freely available on the Internet.
2. Oxford Reference Online was recommended for deletion because the need for and usage of this collection of online reference books has declined in recent years.
3. Mango Languages foreign language learning resource was judged to be valuable, but is simply beyond our budget.
4. NewsBank full-text current and archival content from Ohio's largest newspapers was judged to be valuable, but beyond our budget. NewsBank also seems to be seldom used outside libraries, and within libraries the amount of usage varies widely depending on library type and location.

Libraries that currently have paid for subscriptions to the resources we plan to add to the collection will be able to arrange reimbursement by contacting the vendor after the statewide negotiations are complete and contracts have been signed, which may be as late as the end of June.

In closing, Libraries Connect Ohio would like to acknowledge the work of the advisory committee that reviewed all the proposed products and recommended desired databases. Their work was difficult because a reduction in available LSTA funds meant that the current collection of databases had to be trimmed, but they carefully considered all options and came to agreement on some hard decisions. These are the members that served on the committee:

State Library: Nicole Merriman

INFOhio: Kathy Fredrick, Shaker Heights City School District; Catherine Leininger, Upper Valley Career Center; Linda Jacobs Swarlis, Columbus School for Girls; Jim Vincent, Stark Portage Area Computer Consortium; and Ellen Williams, Paulding Exempted Village Schools

OPLIN: Tamar Kreke, Greene County Public Library; Kristen Pool, Kent Free Library; Jeff Regensburger, Worthington Libraries; Sandi Thompson, Puskarich Public Library; and David Topoleski, Toledo-Lucas County Public Library

OhioLINK: Kelly Broughton, Ohio University Libraries; Ed Krakora, Ashland University Library; Kim Leggett, Columbus State Community College Library; Elizabeth (Eli) Sullivan, Miami University Libraries; and Karen Wilhoit, Wright State University Libraries

Thank you all!

--
Stephen Hedges, Director
Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN)
2323 W. Fifth Ave., Suite 130, Columbus, OH 43204
614-728-5250  ::  hedgesst at oplin.org