INFOhio Transforms Content Delivery for PreK-12 Students: From Physical Classrooms to Virtual SchoolRooms

The Vision

In November 1989, a group of school librarians in northeast Ohio proposed a statewide plan to automate school libraries. The first two libraries, Austintown Fitch and Boardman high schools, were automated in 1994. Now, a little more than twenty years later (as of January 2011), 2,447 individual school libraries, serving more than 1.1 million students, are automated and networked together by INFOhio with library automation software from SirsiDynix.

In addition to this very successful effort that created interconnected virtual catalogs among these school libraries, INFOhio realized that every student needed access to a robust virtual reference environment. INFOhio quickly expanded beyond a library automation project to include providing electronic and digital resources, resource sharing, professional development, information literacy instruction, and support for teachers and parents. The mission statement of INFOhio accurately reflects that it “supports and enriches teaching and learning by providing equitable access to quality resources for Ohio’s PreK-12 community of students, educators, and parents” (About INFOhio, 2009).