Additional Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) funding has allowed OhioLINK, Ohio’s academic library consortium, to purchase four new collections of shared digital books and streaming video. GEER is part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which authorized federal economic aid in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new library resources support a broad curriculum for teaching and learning, including the continued growth of hybrid and online instruction that accelerated during the pandemic. Faculty can utilize the Routledge Handbooks and SAGE streaming video for no-cost-to-student teaching materials, augmenting OhioLINK’s digital library of more than 180,000 digital books and other electronic information resources available to students and faculty at academic institutions across the state.
“OhioLINK is grateful to Governor Mike DeWine’s offices and the Ohio Department of Higher Education for providing these additional GEER funds,” said OhioLINK Executive Director Amy Pawlowski. “OhioLINK’s capacity to work with libraries across the state to identify, negotiate for the best pricing, and manage the distribution of these resources ensures that we are delivering the greatest impact for teaching and education.”
“OhioLINK librarians have been invaluable in working with faculty to navigate low- and no-cost teaching materials throughout the pandemic,” added OhioLINK Director of Affordable Learning Anna Bendo. “These additional library resources will be available to students and faculty for spring semester 2023.”
The newly purchased resources offer scholarly content in the humanities, social sciences, and STEM, with a specialized streaming video collection in mental health, counseling, and psychotherapy. Higher education students, faculty and staff can access the digital library resources online through OhioLINK’s 117 member libraries. The new content packages include:
Resource |
Supports |
Routledge Handbooks from Taylor & Francis |
E-books to support a broad curriculum: humanities, social sciences, science & technology, and more.
|
Elsevier e-books |
E-books and e-textbooks in subjects relating to science, social science, medicine, and engineering |
University Press e-books from De Gruyter |
E-books to support broad curriculum for sciences, humanities, business, technology, medicine, law, and more from Columbia, Harvard, California, Stanford, Toronto, University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers and Penn State presses |
SAGE e-videos |
Streaming video from the Video Counseling & Psychotherapy collection |
For 30 years, OhioLINK has been reducing the cost of higher education by providing shared resources and services for its member institutions. GEER funding in 2021 added digital resources for the online and hybrid teaching environment, including for physical and applied science courses that had not previously been taught online. As COVID-19 forced remote education, OhioLINK’s four-year and two-year members relied on access to OhioLINK’s digital scholarly resources, as well as its inclusive access digital textbooks and Open Educational Resources (OER). To further support the use of no-cost-to-student resources in 2022, OhioLINK offered Ohio higher education faculty small grants to learn about using OER and explore relevant OER and library materials for a current course syllabus. The grants proved so popular that OhioLINK will offer them again in 2023.
About OhioLINK: Connecting libraries, learning and discovery.
Established in 1992, the Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) is Ohio’s statewide academic library consortium, serving 88 institutions plus the State Library of Ohio. Delivering both IT infrastructure and content negotiation, OhioLINK provides students, researchers, faculty, and staff with access to valuable digital research collections at a fraction of the cost if those collections were purchased by individual institutions. OhioLINK also connects library services, print and digital collections among its member institutions and manages collaborative services aimed at reducing students’ cost of higher education in Ohio, including eTutoring and Affordable Learning. A member of the Ohio Technology Consortium of the Ohio Department of Higher Education, OhioLINK creates a competitive advantage for its member institutions and supports student and researcher success across Ohio. Learn more at ohiolink.edu.