R.I. Government Agencies | Privacy Policy |
Coming this fall to all Rhode Islanders everywhere!The RI Office of Library and Information Services (OLIS), Ocean State Libraries (OSL), Higher Education Library Information Network (HELIN), and RI Library Information Network for Kids (RILINK) have been working all summer with the Statewide Reference Resource Center at the Providence Public Library (SRRC) to take a first step toward fulfilling the promise of SurfRI. As a result, a core collection of electronic resources will be available beginning this fall to all Rhode Islanders from their favorite library or wherever they connect to the Internet. These core resources include Tutor.com, World Book and World Book Discover, and a selection of EBSCO databases including Academic Search Premier, MasterFile Premier, History Reference Center and more.
The need for statewide access to electronic databases and other online library resources was forcefully elucidated by the report of the LibFutures Committee several years ago and became a major focus of the Karla Harry Commission over the past two years. The Commission named it “SurfRI” for demonstration purposes and exhibited the power of online resources in trials during the past two legislative sessions. Unfortunately, the state of the economy precluded appropriation of additional funding to support “SurfRI.” This summer OLIS began talking with Providence Public Library about redefining the role of the SRRC to direct a significant portion of the annual SRRC grant to initiate online services. As it moves from demo to reality, SurfRI will become part of the SRRC’s ongoing successful AskRI online reference service.
The core collection will be seamlessly available from public, school, academic and special libraries (excepting for-profit organizations). Outside the library building, access to these resources will be freely available to all Rhode Islanders from home or any place in the state that has Internet access (excluding for-profit entities). Outside of the state, Rhode Islanders will be able to gain entry to the online resources by using their card from a Rhode Island library.
By bringing together RI’s three major library consortia to work with the SRRC, OLIS has been able to build this new resource on the foundation of online services already offered at RI libraries. HELIN libraries provide extensive online resources to faculty and students at their institutions as well as to medical staff at member hospitals. Similarly, OSL offers access through public libraries and RILINK through member schools. None of those have been universally available statewide, however. A student beginning a research project in school would discover that she couldn’t access the databases she used there when the school closed and she tried to continue working at home or at her public library. AskRI will resolve that difficulty and others like it.
The existing relationships between libraries and vendors opened the way for a great deal of enthusiasm among the vendors as well as the librarians involved. Tutor.com, World Book and EBSCO have all been forthcoming with training and plan to assist with getting the word out to the library community and the public. There are some details left to work out in the area of authentication to ensure safe and sound access without burdening users with the need to enter library card information or passwords. World Book is already authenticating users geographically (seamless access for anyone inside RI’s borders); outside the state a second level of access will be available using library IDs, eg., library card numbers, for authentication. Tutor.com and EBSCO are working towards geographic authentication. Remote access to Tutor.com will initially be available using a library card and should soon be available via geographic authentication. EBSCO will initially be available at libraries and through the AskRI website, and will join the geographic authentication scheme in January. All resources will be available seamlessly from within libraries..
Although OSL and HELIN will continue their current subscriptions to EBSCO services, libraries already subscribing to other services that are now available statewide will be refunded fees paid for any service that overlaps with the statewide endeavor. World Book resources are now available statewide; Tutor.com and EBSCO databases will become available the week of September 8.
As libraries, their users and the general public become more familiar with the online resources at AskRI, the consortium of consortia that has begun the service will be looking for additional sources of funding to grow it. They will be looking for stories about how AskRI has changed lives or enhanced individuals’ learning endeavors and collecting data about the service for continual evaluation. Please keep your ears open for such stories and pass them along to us.
We also encourage everyone to take part in marketing these electronic resources to your patrons to help expand awareness of electronic resources. To that end, there will be ongoing OLIS Continuing Education classes on the new resources that will cover both use and marketing of the resources; promotional materials will be available. Please encourage the appropriate staff at your library to attend these sessions. We also ask that everyone include a link to AskRI on their library website. Logos and additional marketing resources are available via the Librarians’ Resource Center on AskRI.
Special thanks are due to Bob Aspri of HELIN, Joan Gillespie of OSL, Dorothy Frechette of RILINK, Kathyellen Bullard of the PPL, and Karen Mellor of OLIS for the hard work that went into making AskRI’s access to electronic resources a reality. If you have questions about these subscriptions, please contact Karen Mellor (401.574.9304 or karenm@olis.ri.gov)
Office of Library and Information Services, One Capitol Hill, Providence RI 02908-5803, (401)574-9300; Fax: (401)574-9320
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provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.