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Announcements and Updates INFOhio Budget Update Message from INFOhio July 28, 2009 Dear Colleagues, Now that Ohio’s FY10-11 budget has been approved, INFOhio is carefully evaluating its impact on current programs and services. Here is what we know at this time to help you plan for the 2009-2010 school year. Budget Review Last year’s budget appropriated just under $2.5 million for INFOhio. A series of state-mandated cuts throughout the past year resulted in actual funding of just over $2 million, almost 20% less funds. The just-passed budget appropriates about $1.6 million for 2009-2010, a reduction of more than $400,000. The same amount is appropriated for 2010-2011. While every effort will be made to avoid reducing our products and services to students, educators and libraries, you must understand that we have very limited choices. SIRS Discoverer As I announced earlier, SIRS Discoverer is not part of Library Connect Ohio (LCO) resources. INFOhio has been the only partner to provide the resource to our community. When INFOhio lost funding for SIRS Discoverer in October 2008, the eTech Ohio Commission provided a one-time grant to continue the resource last school year. INFOhio has attempted to secure a new sponsor to purchase SIRS Discoverer at the state level, but all agencies have seen budgets reduced, and I do not anticipate SIRS Discoverer will be included in the Core Collection for this coming school year. Our SIRS Discoverer colleagues at ProQuest have graciously allowed us to use the product through September 30 and are collecting information for building/district prices. INFOhio will publish a revised Core Collection Plus Price List 2009, by August 3, that will include SIRS pricing. The password-protected document requires the same password as used for the Core Collection during 2009-2010. INFOsearch The federated search features for our Core Collection, INFOsearch, will not be available for this coming school year. INFOsearch will be removed from all Core Collection pages by August 3. We realize that this feature made Core Collection searches more effective and regret the loss of INFOsearch. INFOhio staff will continue to investigate federated search products, including those offered by our Libraries Connect partners, as time permits. (Note: Federated searching will remain a component of SchoolRooms and be available within SchoolRooms for SchoolRooms subscribers only.) Core Collection for 2009-2010 The State Library of Ohio recently approved the Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO) partners’ request to renew purchases of the Ohio Web Library collection of databases. The request was modified to take into account state budget cuts and spending controls that are affecting all partners. Barring any additional budget problems we expect to retain the following resources:
Budget cuts of our LCO partners require changes to two products. Consumer Health Complete, one of the EBSCOhost databases, was discontinued as of July 1. Schools are encouraged to access EBSCO’s Health Source, Alternative Health Watch and MEDLINE – as well as NetWellness – for health information. The revised Price List 2009 will include Consumer Health Complete pricing by August 3. The NewsBank Newspapers collection will be limited to four of the five largest Ohio dailies:
NewsBank will also provide full coverage access to the Cincinnati Post from 1990 through the end of 2007. Although national newspaper access through NewsBank will be discontinued, 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. SchoolRooms INFOhio had hoped to provide SchoolRooms for all Ohio K-12 students, parents and educators for the 2009-2010 school year. Unfortunately, Ohio’s budget limitations make this impossible. However, INFOhio has negotiated special pricing for Ohio schools to purchase SchoolRooms, will continue to provide input to SirsiDynix in the development of this learning portal and will advocate for the addition of Ohio content and other improvements. To help you decide if SchoolRooms is appropriate for your students and your district’s budget, INFOhio has prepared a Web page, Is SchoolRooms Right for Your Students? at /ER/SchoolRoomsdecision2009.html. The page contains links to a fact sheet and other background documents, an explanation of how various funding sources can be used to purchase SchoolRooms, a link to the newest version of Price List 2009, and procedures for subscribing to SchoolRooms. To allow for continued evaluation and demonstration of the product, SirsiDynix has agreed to extend statewide access to SchoolRooms until September 30. Thank you for your understanding and support for INFOhio during this time of financial uncertainty. Please be assured that INFOhio will communicate further details as they become available. Theresa M. Fredericka |
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| Last Updated on August 10, 2009 |
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