As we approach the end of the state fiscal year, and the time for the Libraries Connect Ohio (LCO) partners to renew purchases of the Ohio Web Library collection of databases, and the final version of the new state budget, changes to the Ohio Web Library collection are finally coming into focus.

OPLIN sustained budget cuts in 2008 that forced us to announce last September that NoveList would be discontinued as of July 1, 2009. We urge you to try http://aboutbooks.info for readers' advisory information.

In April we learned that Gannett newspapers had signed an exclusive agreement with ProQuest that prohibited sales of online access to library consortia; Gannett newspapers can now only be sold to individual libraries. That means that 9 of the 15 Ohio newspapers previously included in the Ohio Web Library will become unavailable to us on July 1.

Now, budget cuts to our LCO partners (State Library, OhioLINK, and INFOhio) have impacted their ability to contribute funds to Ohio Web Library purchases.

All of these factors have forced us to make the following revisions to the Ohio Web Library collection:

1. NoveList will no longer be provided by OPLIN (previously announced).
2. National newspaper access through NewsBank will be discontinued; however, main stories from national and Ohio newspapers will continue to be available through EBSCO Newspaper Source (see their coverage list).
3. Complete access to four of the five largest Ohio newspapers will now be available through NewsBank, including the Columbus Dispatch (for the first time!), The Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Toledo Blade, and the Dayton Daily News. The Cincinnati Enquirer is a Gannett newspaper and therefore unavailable to us, but NewsBank will also provide full coverage access to the Cincinnati Post from 1990 through the end of 2007.
4. Consumer Health Complete will be discontinued as of July 1. Access to EBSCO Health Source, Alternative Health Watch, and MEDLINE will continue, and NetWellness is also included in http://ohioweblibrary.org searches.

We have managed to retain access to all other Ohio Web Library databases, including EBSCO Masterfile, World Book, Science Online, Learning Express Library, Biography Reference Bank, and Oxford Reference Online.

We apologize for the tardiness of this news, but the volatility of the budget and the newspaper market has made it impossible to share definitive information before now. Please contact Stephen Hedges through OPLIN Support if you have any questions.

Finally, OPLIN will continue to provide both the Hannah Report and the Gongwer Ohio Report by email to public librarians (Gongwer) and public libraries and library administrators (Hannah). Please see http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/oplin-gongwer and http://mail.oplin.org/mailman/listinfo/oplin-hannah for more information.