OhioLINK: THE OHIO LIBRARY AND
INFORMATION NETWORK

Chris Miko

William T. Jerome Library
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA
E-mail: cmiko@bgsuopie.edu


Keywords: Library Networks, Information Networks, Networking, OhioLINK, Ohio Library and Information Network, Integrated Systems, Library Integrated Systems, Academic Libraries, Online Access, Databases.

Abstract: OhioLink is a statewide library and information network linking major uni-versity and research libraries in the State of Ohio. While the present OhioLINK central catalog contains items owned by six universities, by 1994 it will contain the holdings of all seventeen state supported universities and the State Library of Ohio. Its goal is to provide easy access and rapid delivery of library materials to users anywhere in the state. The main features of OhioLINK include: an on-line central catalog of the holdings/ circulations status of member libraries; on-line access to databases such as ABI/Inform, Periodical Abstracts, and Newspaper Abstracts; Internet availability, and network access from home, office and lab. As OhioLINK grows in 1993-1995, several more features will become available: a circulation system allowing terminal and work-station users to directly initiate loan requests from any site; additional databases including MEDLINE and Dissertation Abstracts; the inclusion of the collections of community and technical col-leges as well as private colleges and universities throughout Ohio into the central catalog, and a document delivery service for books, articles, and other informa-tion services. Once implemented, OhioLINK's document delivery service will provide for the delivery of books and other materials within a few days, not the few weeks that is currently the standard. Increasing numbers of documents will arrive even sooner through facsimile and other electronic delivery. OhioLINK is a national leader in bring-ing the benefits of library, computing, and networking technologies to Ohio university, college, and state library users.

 1. BACKGROUND

At its simplest, OhioLINK is the Ohio Library and Information Network, a project of the Ohio Board of Regents intended to develop a highly innovative library access system for Ohio's colleges and universities. But the OhioLINK project is really much more complex. OhioLINK seeks to "respond effectively to the problems and opportunities of the emerging 'information society'." OhioLINK will connect people, libraries, and information in a statewide network of unparalleled sophistication and efficiency" (Ohio Board of Regents, 1987). The genesis for OhioLINK was the perceived need to respond to the rapid and dramatic changes in the way in which we access and use information. Because the volume of printed material being produced outstrips libraries' resources to acquire it; because more and more information now appears in electronic formats; and because students, faculty, and researchers throughout the state cannot keep pace with this information explosion and gain rapid access to that information, the concept of OhioLINK emerged.

But OhioLINK really grew out of an effort to address the more mundane problems attendant to finding more space and storage for the state's academic libraries and their collections. The concep-tualization of OhioLINK came from Academic Libraries in Ohio, Progress Through Collaboration, Storage, and Technology (September 1987). The Ohio General Assembly, influenced by the Ohio Board of Regents, directed that a study be conducted "of the need for, and alternatives to, a signifi-cant expansion of space for state college and university libraries" (Ohio Board of Regents, 1989). The final report issued by the Library Study Committee made several recommendations. Among them, under the heading "Collaboration", were the following:

• that the State of Ohio implement as expeditiously as possible a statewide electronic catalog system,

• that within one year the Board of Regents complete a detailed five-year plan for implementing the statewide electronic catalog system,

• that the State of Ohio fund the university librarians' plan for converting existing catalog records to machine-readable form,

• that a statewide distribution system for library materials be developed and implemented,

• that the Board of Regents develop an incentive plan to expand collaborative collection develop-ment projects that will strengthen the State's collections and lead to space and cost savings.

 Another set of recommendations, under the rubric "Technology," recommended that the Board of Regents monitor developments in information technology that would affect the State's academic libraries' operations and that the Board of Regents initiate and fund studies and pilot projects to explore such technology. The marriage of "Collaboration" and "Technology" brought forth a new concept - OhioLINK.

OhioLINK, from its inception, had very specific goals:

• Link university libraries throughout Ohio in such a way to allow them to be used as a single source of twenty million plus volumes. Such a system will serve as an online catalog to provide direct access to catalog records and circulation information for books and periodicals in all OhioLINK libraries. For example, a user can search for a book or periodical in either a local campus system or access the central OhioLINK catalog containing information for all books and periodicals held by participating libraries. The user may request that the item be delivered by van within a few days to a campus library or, in the case of a journal article, have an electrostatic copy mailed or a digitized copy sent via fax or computer workstation through the Ohio Academic Resource Network (OARnet).

• Serve as a gateway to information stored in electronic formats so that users can access and use these sources with the same computers and interface used in accessing the on-line catalog. By this means, bibliographic and information databases such as MEDLINE and ERIC, including full-text information available in digital formats, will be available to users.

• Seek to serve users who want either to borrow materials or know the availability of material within minutes and provide books to users within a few days and copies of articles within one day.

• Seek to be a major factor in improving the quality of education and research in the state as well as the cost effectiveness of resources. Universities will be able to rely upon other institutions for certain peripheral materials, thus freeing funds to focus on materials of special importance to their core programs. Negotiating subscriptions to computer-based information and databases will take place on a statewide basis. Economies of scale will be brought to the universities purchases of software maintenance agreements and the use of skilled staff to support different computer systems.

• Plan to use advanced software and hardware technology to provide researchers with a compre-hensive and intelligent guide to effective utilization of library and information resources through the OhioLINK workstation software.

 The structure and strategy of OhioLINK is to provide a highly centralized system. Library systems located at each participating institution will be unified through a powerful, centrally located "search engine". OhioLINK Central, as it has come to be called, will also route requests, loan transactions and messages to each campus OhioLINK system, retrieve and transmit detailed hold-ings and availability information, and manage the shared catalog resources of enhanced bibliographic records maintained at each library. A three-tiered networking structure has developed:

1) The individual campuses and the internal networks,

2) OhioLINK Central operating over OARnet, and

3) National and international networks from both central and campus gateways.

The Ohio Board of Regents, in consultation with a steering committee and the Inter-University Library Council, developed governance and planning structure for OhioLINK that includes a Governing Board and an Executive Director. The Governing Board is made up of nine university provosts or vice presidents and the Executive Director reports to this body. Also created to advise the Executive Director are the Policy Advisory Council consisting of a mix of library directors, computer center directors, faculty members, academic deans, and systems librarians and the Library Advisory Council which consists of all OhioLink member library deans and directors. The follow-ing committees exist to aid in the implementation of the OhioLINK project: Database Standards and Management, User Services, Cooperative Information Resources Management, and Inter-Campus Services. Membership on these committees is drawn from the staff of OhioLINK member libraries.

The phase one sites, which are currently operational, include Bowling Green State University, Case Western University, Central State University, University of Cincinnati, Miami University, and Wright State University. Libraries joining during the next two years as phase two sites are Univer-sity of Akron, Cleveland State University, University of Dayton, Kent State University, Medical College of Ohio, Northeast Ohio University College of Medicine, Ohio State University, Ohio University, Shawnee State University, the State Library of Ohio, University of Toledo, and Young-stown State University.

2. DEVELOPMENTS

During this Fall Semester, a selection of FirstSearch databases will become available to all Bowling Green library users through OhioLINK. This service will be offered at no charge on a test basis as part of Bowling Green's participation in OhioLINK. FirstSearch is a user-friendly compu-ter system developed by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) to assist students, faculty, and staff in searching for books and periodical articles. The selection of databases includes, Article First, Biography Index, Consumers Index, ContentsFirst, ERIC, General Science Index, GPO Monthly Catalog, Humanities Index, PAIS Decade, Readers Guide Abstracts, Social Science Index, Wilson Business Abstracts, and WorldCAT. With the addition of FirstSearch to the databases currently available through OhioLink including ABI/Inform, Periodical Abstracts, and Newspaper Abstracts, library users will have access to a greater variety of computerized library holdings and periodical indexes than ever before. With FirstSearch accessible through OhioLINK, its resources will become available to a patron using either an OhioLINK terminal in the University Libraries or their home or office computer and modem.

This past year, Bowling Green became a test site for another OhioLINK development. In February, 1993, Bowling Green libraries became a phase one OhioLINK test site for University Microfilms International's (UMI) Proquest system. Proquest is a compact disk system which indexes some 2,400 magazine, journal and newspaper sources and offers the full text, plus illus-trations, for a large number of them (a total of 662 in the near future). Eight computer‘ workstations were dedicated to Proquest databases, indexing articles published in periodicals and newspapers. On command once an article is selected, high-speed laser printers connected to a "jukebox" of compact disks containing text and images produce the articles on site in the library. One Proquest feature is that, unlike most other full text systems, it prints images along with the text - photos, drawings, maps, and cartoons along with other types of article illustrations. The Proquest system test at Bowling Green ended this past summer but the service is still available to faculty and students through December, 1993. OhioLINK is currently evaluating the test results from the phase one institutions before making it available throughout the system. Whether the service will be available to all OhioLINK libraries has not yet been determined.

Phase two of the OhioLINK Proquest test is even more ambitious. OhioLINK and University Microfilms will mount the databases indexing the periodicals, newspapers and dissertations at the central site on the campus of Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Jukeboxes of image compact disks will be housed there as well. Any library patron could then locate and order the full text of articles through any OhioLINK public terminal instead of a limited number of dedicated work-stations. Articles will still be printed and picked up at the BGSU's Main and Science Libraries. While it is not feasible at this time, in the near future librarians envision Proquest and perhaps other databases, delivering the text of research materials to a workstation in the researcher's home or office.

Document delivery is yet another OhioLINK service soon to be implemented. Beginning in November, 1993, all participating OhioLINK libraries will benefit from on-site delivery and pickup of material from other libraries. Daily delivery and pickup is being planned for each main campus library, and on-call delivery and pickup will be available at regional campus and branch libraries. Requests for materials will still be made through the existing interlibrary loan offices until on-line requesting becomes available. All faculty, students and staff will be able to have books, journals and electrostatic copies from another OhioLINK university library delivered to the main library on their campus. The eventual goal is to provide a 48-72 hour turn around time between the request and the delivery. The participating university libraries are Bowling Green State University, Case Western University, Central State University, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, Medical College of Ohio, Miami University, Northeast Ohio University College of Medicine, Ohio University, Ohio State University, University of Toledo, and Youngstown State University.

Electronic document delivery to library patrons has also been a goal since the inception of OhioLINK. A statewide task force will soon be appointed to examine electronic document delivery strategies and systems and to submit recommendations.

Another long time goal of OhioLINK will be realized in the near future. All the university libraries participating in OhioLINK will begin direct on-site reciprocal borrowing for all registered faculty, staff and students. The policy highlights of the direct reciprocal borrowing policy include:

• material may be borrowed for a period of 21 days with one 21 day renewal period, unless there is a hold on the item,

• the loan period for special materials or special format may be different as set by the lending library,

• material may be recalled from any patron but only if needed for class reserve,

• items may be renewed by telephone if the call is made before the item becomes overdue,

• faculty and staff may check out a total of 15 items and students may checkout 10 items,

• lending libraries shall send out overdue notices directly to the patron,

• patrons may borrow material from a lending library even if the material is available at the home campus,

• the borrower is responsible for returning material to the lending library on time either directly to the lending library or through the home library,

• fines, up to the amount charged on the borrower's home campus, may be levied but shall neither exceed $1.00 per day or a total of $30.00 per item. Failure to return a recalled item shall be fined at the rate of $3.00 per day, and

• the lost book replacement charge will be $75.00 per item minimum unless the actual replace-ment cost is documented to be higher. An additional $25.00 processing fee shall also be assessed.

 3. FUTURE

OhioLINK has in its future planning restated and reaffirmed its benefits, service goals, service criteria, and user service priorities for the next two years.

• Benefits -- The major benefits which OhioLINK seeks to realize for the State of Ohio are as follows:

- to improve the Ohio higher education community's ability to leverage resources to respond to the accelerating pace of newly-published material, both traditional and electronic, that is out-stripping the ability of any single library to acquire, catalog, and store,

- to maximize the utility of the state's investment in libraries through improved access and delivery mechanisms,

- to improve the Ohio information user's ability to keep up with the ever-increasing volume of information published in more diverse formats,

- to improve the rapid access to material that users need.

 • Service Goals - To link university libraries and the State Library so they will appear as a single resource to students, faculty, and other researchers,

- to be a gateway to the rapidly expanding world of information stored in electronic formats,

- to use advanced software and hardware technology to provide researchers with a comprehen-sive and intelligent guide to the effective use of library and information resources,

- to enable students, faculty, and other researchers who want to borrow materials to receive them within several days and to provide photocopied journal articles and other short texts within 24 hours,

- to provide more cost effective use of existing resources by managing the purchase of new books and journals more cooperatively, by negotiating for information services on a statewide basis, and by bringing economies of scale to software maintenance agreements and the support of library computer systems.

 • Service Criteria -- To guide operational planning and decision-making over the next three years, the previously mentioned benefits and services must have direct and specific criteria against which proposed and executed services can be measured. It is fully expected that more services will be proposed that can be executed at any point in time. The major criterion that each service in and of itself, and each service in relation to other services will be measured against is its ability to maximize the ratio of statewide services delivered to the information delivery cost.

• User Service Priorities -- OhioLINK institutions have three major classes of patrons --faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students, as well as library staff. Additionally, it is hoped that access to OhioLINK resources will be expanded to the community and technical colleges. Within the next three years, the general priorities for each group which will guide specific service

priorities are as follows:

Faculty and Graduate Students

- Improve cost effectiveness and delivery of more specialized, expensive, esoteric material while maintaining and improving access,

- Provide services external to the library that improve the effectiveness and efficiency of research related information inquiries and improve the ability to integrate the results with the scholar's other information materials.

 Undergraduate Students - Improve access and use of home institution and intra-state materials and databases,

- Improve statewide cost effectiveness of commonly-held or commonly needed materials and databases by linking these materials to statewide holdings and availability,

- Improve the service levels for the delivery of articles from the most heavily used serial materials.

 Library Staff and Operations - Provide significant improvements in management information to support the cooperative library effort in sharing resources more effectively while achieving improvement in patron use and access,

- Improve operational efficiency to reduce per unit costs of information supplied.

 Community and Technical Colleges - Provide the full range of OhioLINK services and capabilities to an initial group,

- Plan for full inclusion of the community colleges within acceptable time frames and costs to OhioLINK and each college.

 4. CONCLUSION

While still in its early stages, the OhioLINK project shows great promise. The cooperation among the eighteen member institutions has been extremely high, the State of Ohio has demonstrated continued strong support, and the Innovative Interfaces/OhioLINK partnership has made a promi-sing start. Everyone involved with OhioLINK, including library staff and library users, anticipates an exciting future for libraries and research in the State of Ohio.
 

REFERENCE

Ohio Board of Regents. Library Study Committee. Academic Libraries in Ohio: Progress through Collaboration, Storage, and Technology. Report of the Library Study Committee. Columbus, OH: Ohio Board of Regents, 1987.

Ohio Board of Regents. Ohio Library & Information System: Connecting People, Libraries, & Information for Ohio's Future. Columbus, OH: Ohio Board of Regents, 1989.