INFOhio, a digital library that offers a variety of content and services—most at no charge—to Ohio’s 1.9 million PreK-12 students, their parents, and their teachers, needs your help.

In FY16-17, INFOhio’s digital content budget was slashed by $1.1 million. INFOhio could no longer pay its share of the Libraries Connect Ohio agreement. As a result, all libraries—academic, public, and school—lost access to LearningExpress Library. Other organizations stepped in to make sure that no additional resources would be lost. Since then, INFOhio and members of the PreK-12 community have been advocating to have that funding restored.

What’s the impact?   Unfortunately, in the proposed FY18-19 budget, that $1.1 million funding, which goes directly for digital content to all Ohio schools, was not restored. The organizations that made up our shortfall last time have made it clear: they cannot afford to do it again. Unless the funding is restored, all INFOhio resources—including BookFlix, Storia, and all the databases in the LCO collection—are at risk.

INFOhio recommends the following actions to restore this essential service:

• Contact your school district administrators and let them know that your district will be losing these valuable resources. Let them know how the loss will impact student learning.
• Call and send letters to your state representative and state senator, asking them to restore the $1.1 million for INFOhio.  Find your legislators’ contact information in the menu at the top of the page. and be sure the include the following language: “In HB 49, please support the amendment to restore INFOhio funding in line 97286 by increasing the amount from $1,443,572 to $2,500,000.”  

Need help starting your message to your legislators? Click here to view more info.