OHIOLINK: A vision for the 21st century
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb047935 |
| Published date | 01 April 1994 |
| Pages | 29-34 |
| Date | 01 April 1994 |
| Author | David Kohl |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
OHIOLINK:
A VISION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
David Kohl
with sidebars by Bill Studer and Tom Sanville
OhioLINK, a consortium of Ohio academic
libraries in both the public and the private sector
ranging from major research institutions to
community colleges, is one of the nation's first
major attempts to create a virtual, statewide
library system. More than just linking the
holdings of participating libraries within the
context of a 48-hour delivery system for books
and journal articles, OhioLINK provides the
platform as well for the statewide delivery of
commercial and other databases, Gopher
Internet access, and experimentation with the
development and testing of new information
tools.
OhioLINK also represents an intriguing
and creative approach to state funding and
automated system design. In terms of bold
imagination and cooperative power, OhioLINK
follows in the footsteps of that other
major Ohio institution, OCLC.
INTRODUCTION
OhioLINK is a consortium of Ohio academic
libraries, including both private and public schools and
ranging from community college through Carnegie I
research institutions. It uses automation not just to link
Ohio academic libraries together to form a virtual,
statewide collection of some 20 million volumes but
also to provide a platform to aggressively explore and
serve the information needs of a 21st-century Ohio.
OhioLINK is not a finished, but rather a develop-
ing and changing, story. Arising out of a creative
counterpoint of challenge and response between the
state legislature and the academic community, Ohio-
LINK is a triumph not of detailed central planning but
of a vision of statewide cooperation coupled with
a
style
of flexible response to a changing information and
funding environment.
HISTORY
OhioLINK arose out of the realization of failure.
After World War II and particularly in the 1960s and
seventies, the traditional "collect it all" model for the
research library seemed like a reasonable
vision.
While
difficult, and clearly not for everyone, the idea of a
serious research library independently having it all, or
for all practical purposes having it all, seemed achiev-
able.
That vision began to show strains during the
budget problems and serials inflation of the eighties
and by the nineties the idea of providing adequate
Kohl is dean of libraries and university librarian,
University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio.
- OHIOLINK - ISSUE 48
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12:3 (1994) 29
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