Skip navigation

The Ohio Library and Information Network

Last Update 9/18/2007

Imagine having access to more than 46 million books and library materials.

Imagine a museum that holds thousands of exhibits on such diverse subjects as art and architecture to physics.

Imagine having access to 12,000 journals, magazines and newspapers, anytime day or night.

This Is OhioLINK

The Ohio Library and Information Network, OhioLINK, is a consortium of 86 Ohio college and university libraries, and the State Library of Ohio, that work together to provide Ohio students, faculty and researchers with the information they need for teaching and research. Serving more than 600,000 students, faculty, and staff at 87 institutions, OhioLINK’s membership includes 16 public/research universities, 23 community/technical colleges, 47 private colleges and the State Library of Ohio.

Together, OhioLINK and its member libraries provide access to:

OhioLINK Library Catalog
OhioLINK offers access to more than 46 million library items statewide, encompassing a spectrum of library material including law, medical and special collections. The OhioLINK Library Catalog contains 10.2 million unique titles from its 87 member libraries, two public libraries and the Center for Research Libraries. Students, faculty, staff, and card holders from participating public libraries can use the OhioLINK Library Catalog to find and request materials online, then pick them up two to three days later at the participating library of their choice. Users can renew books online and keep them for up to 15 weeks.
Research Databases
OhioLINK offers more than 140 electronic research databases, including a variety of full-text resources. These databases cover many academic areas at varying levels of detail. Many of the databases are citation indexes. Generally, the user can find out which OhioLINK members possess copies of the cited journal or link to the relevant full-text article. OhioLINK’s electronic full-text resources include online dictionaries, literature, and journal articles. Access to the research databases is restricted to valid patrons at OhioLINK member institutions.
Electronic Journal Center (EJC)
OhioLINK launched the Electronic Journal Center, a collection of full-text research journals, in 1998. The EJC contains more than 7,000 scholarly journal titles from 101 publishers across a wide range of disciplines. Researchers can download electronic articles instantly, read entire journal issues online, create e-mail or RSS alerts for new issues, save searches, and set up automatic search alerts for new search results. More than 5.2 million articles are downloaded each year from the EJC, with a total of more than 28.3 million articles downloaded since its inception.
Digital Media Center (DMC)
The Digital Media Center archives and provides access to a variety of multimedia material. The DMC contains 2,000 digital educational films and documentaries, including foreign language instruction videos; thousands of electronic images, including images of famous works of art from museums worldwide; sounds; historical documents, including historic Ohio city maps; satellite images of Ohio; and more. Several collections are accessible to anyone worldwide. Materials in the DMC may be shown in class, utilized in course materials, or used to enhance papers, projects and presentations. More than 297,000 multimedia materials are downloaded from OhioLINK each year, with more than 1.2 million materials downloaded since the DMC’s inception in 1999.
E-books
OhioLINK’s growing collection of 25,000 e-books cover a wide variety of subjects and include encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference works (for tracking down a quick fact or illustration); scholarly books; and computer and technology titles (for in-depth, how-to books and technology tips).
Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center (ETD)
The ETD Center is a free online database of 13,570 undergraduate honors theses, masters’ theses, and doctoral dissertations from students at participating Ohio colleges and universities. The ETD Center allows students to get topic ideas, see what peers have written in their discipline, or find a particular theses or dissertation.

History

OhioLINK, a cooperative venture of university libraries and the Ohio Board of Regents, grew out of a 1987 recommendation by the board’s library committee that "the state of Ohio implement, as expeditiously as possible, a statewide electronic catalog system."

In response to this recommendation, the board established a steering committee representing librarians, faculty, administrators and computer systems managers from campuses throughout Ohio. After meetings, public hearings, and conferences, the committee prepared and distributed a planning paper (November 1988); a Request for Information (February 1989); and a Request for Proposal (August 1989) to initiate a statewide electronic system.

In 1990, OhioLINK selected Innovative Interfaces, Inc. to develop the unique software system to create the OhioLINK Library Catalog and selected Digital Equipment Corporation for the computer hardware base. OhioLINK licensed four databases from University Microfilms International, UMI, for citations to millions of business, newspaper and periodical articles and to academic dissertations. These elements formed the foundation of the growing OhioLINK system of services. In 1992, six universities installed OhioLINK systems and began the ongoing process of building the central catalog. In February 1996, OhioLINK began offering services through the World Wide Web.

OhioLINK is part of Ohio’s ongoing tradition in pioneering library automation. The Ohio State University and others in Ohio began integrating campus library systems at an early date. In the 1960s, state funds supported the development of OCLC, then called the Ohio College Library Center. OCLC has since grown into an international organization with a database of 30 million entries representing materials held in more than 10,000 libraries.

Governance

The Ohio Board of Regents has authorized the OhioLINK Governing Board to oversee the OhioLINK program. The governing board approves the strategic directions and financial expenditures of the program. Meeting six times per year either in the whole or through the board’s executive committee the board regularly reviews the progress of the program and approves future initiatives and expenditures. The board consists of 13 voting members, nine from universities, three from community colleges, and one from independent colleges. Ex-officio members representing technical, library, and board of regents’ perspectives also participate on the board.