This may be the electronic age, but Ohio’s college students and faculty members are utilizing books and other physical library materials in ever-increasing numbers. Ohio’s college students and faculty borrowed a record-breaking 30,000 books and other library materials via OhioLINK during January 5-11, the first week of the winter quarter for many Ohio colleges and universities. The second week of school, Jan 12-18, also broke all previous years’ records with 26,500 items delivered.
OhioLINK allows users to borrow materials that aren’t available at their own library from other OhioLINK libraries at no charge. The cost, if libraries or individuals had to purchase those 30,000 items instead of borrowing copies from other libraries, would be at least $2,000,000. The only way libraries can afford to provide as much information as Ohio students and faculty enjoy is through collaboration.
“Use of OhioLINK services has continually shown that Ohio students, faculty and researchers are voracious users of as much instruction and research information as we can possibly provide them,” Tom Sanville, OhioLINK’s executive director, said. “With tight or declining library budgets, OhioLINK also continues to demonstrate that the only economically affordable way for Ohio university and college libraries to provide needed information is through collaboration.”
Use of OhioLINK’s online library catalog and borrowing program—a cooperative service of 88 Ohio academic libraries, the State Library of Ohio, and two Ohio public library systems—continues to climb even as more and more electronic books and journals are made available. OhioLINK’s online borrowing and delivery service is generally busiest in January, but January 5-11, 2009 deliveries were up 14% over the previous one-week borrowing record of 26,300 items, set during the first week of January 2008.
Individuals from all OhioLINK institutions borrowed materials during the first week of January 2009. The biggest borrower of library materials, The Ohio State University, is also the biggest lender. OSU borrowed 5,075 items and lent 2,879 during the first week of January. OhioLINK has delivered more than 777,000 books and other materials in the past 12 months, and more than eight million since the service began in 1994.
Posted by Candi Clevenger at February 2, 2009 12:32 PM