[OPLINTECH] Changes to Ohio Web Library databases

[Stephen Hedges]

As we approach the end of the state fiscal year, and the time for the
Libraries Connect Ohio partners to renew purchases of the Ohio Web Library
collection of databases, and the final version of the new state budget,
changes to the Ohio Web Library collection are finally coming into focus.

OPLIN sustained budget cuts in 2008 that forced us to announce last
September that NoveList would be discontinued as of July 1, 2009. We urge
you to try http://aboutbooks.info for readers' advisory information.

In April we learned that Gannett newspapers had signed an exclusive
agreement with ProQuest that prohibited sales of online access to library
consortia; Gannett newspapers can now only be sold to individual
libraries. That means that 9 of the 15 Ohio newspapers previously included
in the Ohio Web Library will become unavailable to us on July 1.

Now, budget cuts to our LCO partners (State Library, OhioLINK, and
INFOhio) have impacted their ability to commit funds to Ohio Web Library
purchases.

All of these factors have forced us to make the following revisions to the
Ohio Web Library collection:

1) NoveList will no longer be provided by OPLIN (previously announced).

2) National newspaper access through NewsBank will be discontinued;
however, main stories from national and Ohio newspapers will continue to
be available through EBSCO Newspaper Source (see
http://www.ebscohost.com/titleLists/nf-coverage.htm for a coverage list).

3) Complete access to four of the five largest Ohio newspapers will now be
available through NewsBank, including the Columbus Dispatch (for the first
time!), The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Toledo Blade, and the Dayton Daily
News. The Cincinnati Enquirer is a Gannett newspaper and therefore
unavailable to us, but NewsBank will also provide full coverage access to
the Cincinnati Post from 1990 through the end of 2007.

4) Consumer Health Complete will be discontinued as of July 1. Access to
EBSCO Health Source, Alternative Health Watch, and MEDLINE will continue,
and NetWellness is also included in http://ohioweblibrary.org searches.

We have managed to retain access to all other Ohio Web Library databases,
including EBSCO Masterfile, World Book, Science Online, Learning Express
Library, Biography Reference Bank, and Oxford Reference Online.

I apologize for the tardiness of this news, but the volatility of the
budget and the newspaper market has made it impossible to share definitive
information before now. Please contact me through OPLIN Support
(http://support.oplin.org) if you have any questions.

Finally, OPLIN will continue to provide both the Hannah Report and the
Gongwer Ohio Report by email to public librarians (Gongwer) and public
libraries and library administrators (Hannah). Please see
http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/oplin-gongwer and
http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/oplin-hannah for more information.

Stephen

-- 
Stephen Hedges, Director
Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN)
2323 W. Fifth Avenue, Suite 130
Columbus, Ohio  43204
614-728-5250    AIM: hedgesst