Other Services

OPLIN provides a wide variety of additional, Internet-related services to Ohio public libraries.

Dynamic Website Kits

Website Kits logo

Are you thinking of upgrading your library's website?

Is your library ready to replace its outdated site with something that:

Looks more professional?
Is easier to manage and doesn't require a tech?
Meets current standards for mobile and handicapped accessibility?
Provides advanced Web 2.0 features and integration with many social media web sites?
Presents your library to your community as a strong, credible institution?

OPLIN is pleased to offer Ohio's public libraries Dynamic Website Kits, a new service that provides all of these features and more at a modest cost. We understand that, in these budget-strapped times, it is more important than ever for public libraries to show their communities that they are vital and trustworthy institutions that can provide the same advanced features as other kinds of sites. We also know that library staff have even less time to manage their websites. OPLIN's Dynamic Website Kits offer a host of options for little investment of time and funds.

Download the Website Kits brochure for additional information.

Why would your library want an OPLIN Dynamic Website Kit?

The kit includes a full content management system (CMS). This means that library staff can control the entire content of the site without needing anyone to change back end code. It's as simple as writing an email or filling out an online form! Create new pages with a few clicks. Post news stories to your front page with no technical knowledge required. The Dynamic Website Kit makes managing your library's web site simple...finally!
It's Web 2.0 ready. Want an RSS feed? Discussion forums? Polls? Blogs? Comments? The ability to share content out easily with Facebook and Twitter? All of these are featured in the basic, fixed-cost package and many social media add-ons are also available for a small cost.
More advanced features. The kit also provides:
- Built-in site search AND the ability to search your library's catalog AND the Ohio Web Library;
- Ability to moderate comments (if your library chooses to have comments);
- Ability to categorize your content easily by keywords;
- An online contact form that can send to different email addresses, depending on the subject matter;
- A Word-like WYSIWYG editor for entering your content, so you don't have to know any code to put your items online;
- Function to upload and attach documents like PDFs to specific web pages;
- Automatically generated printer-friendly pages;
- A version of the site that is mobile-device friendly;
- A calendar and event listing system;
- Online photo albums, with easy uploading capability;
- A basic web analytics package to help your library see how your site is being used by its visitors.
We do the upgrades for you. Don't have a tech? No worries! OPLIN not only hosts your site, but we do all of the required upgrades as needed to the site's systems.
We do the graphics work for you. Each basic kit includes: (Additional custom work can be arranged for an additional cost. Please contact OPLIN for details.)
- Custom design of the header banner, including your logo if desired
- Customizing of colors of text, footer, side blocks and calendar
- Inclusion of the KnowItNow logo and rotating database ad banner at footer of homepage
- Side block graphics as needed (e.g., Bookletters, OverDrive)
- Custom favicon
It's standards-compliant. Unknown to many, other than professional IT staff or web developers, specific standards exist for the code that runs a website. When sites lack standard-compliant code, it can result in poor display in multiple browsers or total inaccessibility to the handicapped or to mobile devices. With the increasing use of web-enabled cell phones, being compliant is fast becoming a critical issue for many sites. Learn more here.
Free training. We provide up to 3 hours of free, hands-on training for at least one staff person at the OPLIN office. We also provide some documentation and additional phone support. Additional training for up to 20 people on-site at your library is also available; please inquire for pricing.
Free guidance during the design process. Our professionally-certified web designer staff will help you with incorporating basic usability and good design principles.
No tech required. OPLIN does the installation, the design, the configuration and the hosting. All your library has to do is plug in its content.
Lots of options. For a small fee, many useful add-ons are available for your Kit. You can see some samples here...but be careful, it's like being a kid in a candy shop!

PRICING

OPLIN's pricing is modest. Our goal is to provide Ohio's public libraries with websites that can better meet the needs of both patrons and staff and be competitive in the rapidly-evolving environment of the World Wide Web. The cost of your Dynamic Website Kit will be $300 for initial setup (original design and up to two revisions) plus $180 per year for maintenance and hosting. (Please note: Due to the extensive extra time it takes to create designs that render legibly in the Internet Explorer 6 and 7 browsers, design support for Internet Explorer 6 or 7 will be an additional $300 flat charge for each version requested. Additionally, we will not do any IE6 or IE7 compatibility work on a site after any design work has been performed. Versions 8 and 9 are not affected by this.) Please see the list, above, for a description of all the features included in a standard Website Kit. Limited customization and graphic design service is also available; please call toll-free 1-888-96-OPLIN (1-888-966-7546) for pricing. For information about more extensive customization, see the "Custom Websites for Libraries" link, below.

TIMELINE

As you might suspect, completion time varies depending on the specifications laid out during the planning stage. Don't hesitate to call us for further discussion of what a timeline for your library's site might be. But we're ready to get rolling with your library's site!

Who hosts the website?

We host your website on the OPLIN web servers. That allows us to keep all the software that runs the site up-to-date and secure. Our hosting service includes:

Firewall to protect the site against intrusion
Regular upgrades to software used to maintain and publish the site
Upgrades to server hardware when advantageous
Retaining current web site domain name
Pro-active fixes for network, system and software vulnerabilities
Mirroring of server hard drives to allow quick recovery from hardware failures
Problem resolution through the OPLIN Support Center

Will the web address of my website change?

No. When your site is ready, we will replace your current site at the same address. So if your current site address is mylibrary.org, your new site address will also be mylibrary.org.

How will I know how to use the website?

We ask each library that uses one of our websites to send some selected staff to our office in Columbus for two or three hours of training. The next step is for you to begin adding content to your site before it goes "live" on the Internet. Throughout this process we are available to assist you. Finally, when you are confident that your site is ready and you know how to keep it current, we launch it.

What if I have problems later?

What is usability and why does it matter?

The most basic definition of web site usability is whether or not users can quickly accomplish a given task on a website without obstacles. Obstacles can be long download times, scattered navigation, poor design, dated styles and many more issues, all of which can affect how users access your site and/or perceive your library.

Many of the web sites developed by public libraries do not adhere to web design standards or best practices. When Laura Solomon did a study (PDF) of Ohio public library websites in 2004, she found that only 17% of Ohio libraries met more than 80% of accepted criteria for usability. As new devices for accessing the Internet, such as the iPhone and other such smartphones, become more prevalent, it will become ever more critical for public libraries to have well-designed, standards-compliant web sites. OPLIN can help by fulfilling an original purpose – enabling libraries to compete with other Internet information providers – in a new way, focusing on building good library web sites as well as building good library Internet connections.

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Website Kits Brochure (PDF)	352.54 KB

Dyamic Website Kit Portfolio

Oak Harbor Public Library

Old Site New Site

Perry Public Library

Old Site New Site

Old Website

Napoleon Public Library

Old Website

Henderson Memorial Public Library

Old Site New Site

Minerva Public Library

Old Site New Site

Perry County District Library

Old Site New Site

Franklin-Springboro Public Library

Old Site New Site

Marion Public Library

(Be sure to check out the separate Children and Teen area designs in their new site!)

Old Site New Site

Troy-Miami Public Library

Old Site New Site

Coldwater Public Library

Old Site New Site

Logan-Hocking Public Library

Old Site New Site

Website Kit Add-On Options (Modules)

Dynamic Website Kits by OPLIN

(Other modules can be requested by library clients on an "as-needed" basis--this is just a **sample** of some that libraries may find useful. (Add-on modules are typically $300.00 apiece; this is a one-time fee and includes upgrades to that module in perputuity.)
(* indicates a module often requested by Webkit clients)

Apture

Once a content publisher has an Apture account, they can contextually link media to key terms they select on a page. The assets appear in a Javascript box that hovers over the term. Media that is embedded includes photos from Flickr, maps from Google, definitions from Wikipedia, and video from YouTube, but the admin interface allows you to customize your own choices. In plainer English: let's say you highlight the word "President." The Apture module automatically opens up a very intuitive interface that allows you to automatically find and link related content to the word. This could be videos, images, or websites like Wikipedia. A terrific way to provide context-sensitive info in a web page.

Cafe Press integration

This module displays items from a cafepress shop (teeshirts, bags, mugs, etc.) in your website. It can also display a block with a randomly chosen item, optionally provide a link to the item as well as the shop and the "sell your own stuff" affiliate program.

More information

Context: Menu Block

Context: Menu Block allows the Menu Block module to be aware of contexts provided by the Context module by informing menu blocks of active menu context reactions. Basically, it provides context-sensitive side menus for your site. Especially good for libraries with a significant number of pages to their site!

More information

Embedded Media Field*

This extensible module will create fields for content types that can be used to display video, image, and audio files from various third party providers. When entering the content, the user will simply paste the URL or embed code from the third party, and the module will automatically determine which content provider is being used. When displaying the content, the proper embedding format will be used. If your library has YouTube, Vimeo or other video/audio content it needs to embed directly in its website, this is the module you're looking for.

More information

Evanced Event Importer

The Evanced Events Importer module integrates features from Evanced Solutions' Events calendar product in to your Website Kit site. With this module installed you can continue to use Evanced Events as a stand-alone product to create events, manage event registration, record attendance statistics, run reports and manage room reservations (in conjunction with Room Reserve).

FAQ/FAQ_Ask

The Frequently Asked Questions (faq) module allows users with the 'administer faq' permission to create question and answer pairs which they want displayed on the 'faq' page. The 'faq' page is automatically generated from the FAQ nodes configured. FAQ_Ask is an add-on to the FAQ module that allows users with the new 'ask question' permission to create a question which will be queued for an 'expert' to answer.

More information

Fivestar

The Five Star voting module adds a clean, attractive voting widget to pages and/or front page stories.

More information (including a sample screenshot)

Flickr*

Access photos on Flickr's site via their API. The module provides a filter for inserting photos and photosets and blocks for a user's recent photos and photosets. An example of use: a library can add photos to their Flickr account and they will automatically show up on the library's website, simply by providing the photo's ID to a form field.

More information

Lightbox2

Ability to show images in a virtual lightbox. Great for image galleries. Fancy pre-loader and transition when you click on the image. Works with the built-in image gallery capability of the Website Kit.

Links Checker*

The Links checker periodically inspects the content of all nodes and tries to detect broken hypertext links by checking the.remote sites and evaluating the HTTP response codes. It maintains a table which can be viewed through the administrative interfaces and contains all its findings. It runs in the background, initially going through all nodes, and subsequently only checking updated and newly created content. This cycle can be set to run from zero every week or month.

More information

Scheduler

This module allows nodes (for example, stories or pages) to be published and unpublished on specified dates.

More information

SimpleNews*

SimpleNews publishes and sends newsletters to lists of subscribers. Both anonymous and authenticated users can opt-in to different mailing lists. Various add-on modules can extend the functionality of this considerably as well.

More information

Site Map*

This module provides a site map that gives visitors an overview of your site. It can also display the RSS feeds for all blogs and categories.

More information

Views Slideshow (Rotating Banner)*

This module provides a rotating banner/slideshow of graphics on your library's website. Items can be paginated or not.

Other Drupal modules can be requested by library clients on an "as-needed" basis. Please contact OPLIN Support for additional information.

Website Kit documentation

The most current user documentation is at: http://oplin.org/webkitdoc/v6/

Libraries that use the CK Editor rather than the previous FCK Editor can view their specific documentation at: http://oplin.org/webkitdoc/v6/webkitCKed.html

How do you decide what side block graphics get added to a site?: We only require one side block, and that's the KnowItNow block of services (you can see an example on Perry County District Library's site). For the rest, we work with your library to determine what is needed and what will work best. We're pretty flexible!
What is a favicon?: A favicon (a mishmosh of “favorite” and “icon”) is a small icon that shows up in the address bar of your browser when you visit a site, and it also shows up in your list of favorites/bookmarks when you bookmark a site. It makes your site easier to find in a bookmark list, if it has its own special icon. Learn more at Wikipedia.
What is the rotating ad banner at the footer that shows databases?: This is a free feature included in all OPLIN Dynamic Website Kits. In the Kits, this banner ad for the Ohio Web Library databases will pull directly from the OPLIN servers; this means that we'll update it for you periodically with additions/deletions to the database collection. The banner will change approximately 1x/week.
What does "uploading files for staff" mean?: This means that your staff will be able to upload (for example) a PDF document that will be attached to a particular web page in your library's site. For instance, you could attach a PDF version of an event flyer to the calendar listing of the event. Keep in mind that this is an attachment; it works just like with email. So the content of your attachment will not show up inline with the other web site text; rather, it will show up as a link that the visitor will click at the bottom of the page content.

Custom Websites for Libraries

The OPLIN Dynamic Website Kits depend on a standardized software installation and design template that allows us to keep the cost low. We do offer limited customization, but some changes "break" our standardized model. For example:

in-house changes that break W3C standards compliance;
changes that require modifications to a standard Drupal module or the Drupal code;
changes that require any special server configuration; and
changes that require custom scripting that accesses web resources outside of OPLIN's control.

When a library customer requests such changes, we are able to refer them to another non-profit entity that has experience building websites for libraries — a partner. OPLIN provides all Drupal work done to date in the way of website parameters and design to the referral partner, so the library does not need to re-start the entire process of designing their website. Our current partners are:

NEO-RLS — more information
OHIONET — ~~see their past projects~~ Currently not doing any new web work until the Spring of 2012.

"Kit & Caboodle" newsletter

OPLIN provides this helpful newsletter on a semi-regular basis to its Webkit customers. All are in PDF format.

Fall 2011: Making sure you use alternative text tags, cleaning up your library's side blocks, Stop using exclamation points, improving site usability by not using "click here," , why underlining is problematic on the Web.

Summer 2011: Making your lists meaningful, (Another) important note about IE9, Focus On: Williams County Public Library, Stop using all caps, getting a photo album

Winter 2011: Putting colors together, An important note about IE9, Focus on: Cuyahoga Falls Library, Get rid of the exclamation points, What's that "Access Denied" message?

Fall 2010: Quick Tips, Stop putting out the welcome mat, Focus On: Tuscarawas County Public Library, ALT tags, Can calendars be color-coded?

Summer 2010: Quick Tips, Make your links jump off the page, Optimizing your images, Writing better FAQs, Adding visitor comments

Winter 2010: Quick Tips, Labeling PDFs, Better blogging, Avoiding library jargon, Adding modules after initial construction

Fall 2009: Quick Tips, Consistency matters, Writing for the Web, Creating headlines that get attention, Categorizing events

Summer 2009: Quick Tips, Making your site more professional-looking, Re-evaluating web graphics, Why OPLIN upgrades Web Kits so often, Why you can't underline text with the Web Kit editor, Additional resources

Attachment	Size
Fall 2011 (PDF)	189.65 KB
Summer 2011 (PDF)	189.77 KB
Winter 2011 (PDF)	160.94 KB
Fall 2010 (PDF)	170.04 KB
Summer 2010 (PDF)	1.18 MB
Winter 2010 (PDF)	339.37 KB
Fall 2009 (PDF)	78.76 KB
Summer 2009 (PDF)	269.76 KB

What does "standards-compliant" mean?

Unknown to many, other than professional IT staff or web developers, specific standards exist for the code that runs a web site. These standards apply to most web-related markup languages, such as HTML, XHTML, XML and even CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Often, the code that is generated by a program like Microsoft Frontpage or created by a non-professional is not compliant to these code standards. This can result in many problems, including poor display in many types or versions of browsers, or even a total absence of display! With the increasing prevalence of web-enabled cell phones, standards-compliance is becoming more and more critical. Standards are set by the the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an international organization. From the W3C site:

“W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines. Since 1994, W3C has published more than 110 such standards, called W3C Recommendations. W3C also engages in education and outreach, develops software, and serves as an open forum for discussion about the Web. In order for the Web to reach its full potential, the most fundamental Web technologies must be compatible with one another and allow any hardware and software used to access the Web to work together. W3C refers to this goal as ‘Web interoperability.’ By publishing open (non-proprietary) standards for Web languages and protocols, W3C seeks to avoid market fragmentation and thus Web fragmentation.

“Tim Berners-Lee and others created W3C as an industry consortium dedicated to building consensus around Web technologies. Mr. Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web in 1989 while working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), has served as the W3C Director since W3C was founded, in 1994.”

If you have further questions about the W3C standards, please contact OPLIN Support.

How to make your website process easier

How to Make Your Website Process Easier

Ditch “design by committee.” As tempting as it is to have a team of some sort, in our experience, this almost always leads to either delays and/or disasters. You can never make everyone happy! Feel free to gather your staff’s input prior to your first phone call with Laura, but we strongly recommend that only 1-2 (MAYBE 3) people from your library should be involved in the actual phone conference. Because it is difficult to please everyone, typical Web Kit projects that are managed by committees tend not to only run longer, but can be more expensive because of constant revisions. To save your library time and money, designate 1-2 people to be in charge of the process and who can step in to make a decision as needed.

Remind your staff who the site is for. In our experience, library staff doesn’t always recognize that the primary (and only) audience for a public website is the public! Attempts to include resources specifically for the reference desk or to organize content just so it’s easier for the staff will generally be opposed by OPLIN. Remind your staff, when seeking input, that patrons not only come first, but are the entire audience for your new site.

Filter the input from your staff. If you are collecting suggestions from your staff, please filter the list (or have your designated liason/leader do so) to just those things that are things you would actually consider. For example, if a staff person suggests that the site should primarily be orange and the library’s branding scheme is primarily blue, remove this from the list. It will save a great deal of time for everyone involved.

Remember that your library gets three (3) drafts—total. Although this is almost always mentioned in the initial call with OPLIN (and is on our website, too), it’s worth mentioning again. As part of the standard Website Kit, your library gets 3 design drafts—total. Beyond that, the custom rate is charged per hour of work. Asking for a sample website in your color scheme will be counted as one of the drafts, as will any tweaks requiring the creation of a new image. If you’re not sure what will be counted, please ask! We’d much rather save you the money.

Don’t use print copies of the design drafts to make decisions. When you get a design prototype from OPLIN, it can be very tempting to print it out to show to other staff. However, most printers automatically scale things to fit the paper. This means that you will not see it in the same way you will see it on a computer monitor. Be sure to pull up the .jpg OPLIN sends you in a browser so you can see it on your monitor!

Understand that part of OPLIN’s job is to educate. We focus strongly on current best practices in usability and accessibility, as well as site navigation and site design. If we veto something, we’ll always explain WHY and often provide you with third-party resources where you can learn more about current standards.

Testimonials

“ OPLIN WEBKITS ROCK!”— Granville Public Library
“ I really loved the layout!”— Dover Public Library
“"I have just been visiting Web sites of a number of libraries across the country. It just reinforces what a great job you did on our new Web site. It looks beautiful, it reflects the atmosphere of our community, and it functions well. (And it doesn’t take 15 minutes for people to find our phone number!)"--Wright Memorial Public Library
"The work estimate is right on target.”— Marion Public Library
"I'm very happy that you're doing this project, and I know our web site will be much better for having your expertise."--Cuyahoga Falls Library
"BULLSEYE! I love it, Laura!" & "By the way, the dynamic webkit was the best thing we ever did! Just love our site. Thank you. "Tuscarawas County Public Library
"It looks wonderful!!!"--Logan-Hocking County District Library
"Love it…perfect…"--Harbor-Topky Memorial Library

Website Kits in progress

The following libraries are currently underway: (Last updated 1/31/12)

Orrville Public Library
Kirtland Public Library
Washington County Public Library
Milton-Union Public Library
Findlay-Hancock County Public Library
Centerburg Public Library
Grafton-Midview Public Library
Tiffin-Seneca Public Library
Southeast Regional Library System (SERLS)
Rodman Public Library
Richwood-North Union Public Library
Jackson City Public Library
Pataskala Public Library
SWON Libraries
J.R. Clarke Public Library
Lima Public Library
Herbert Wescoat Memorial Library
Licking County Public Library
Meigs County Public Library
Claymont Public Library

2012 Summer Reading Template now available

OPLIN is pleased to announce that it now has a special design template available to its Dynamic Website Kit client libraries, just for the 2012 statewide Summer Reading Program. Libraries can apply the design to any pages they wish in their Kit, and add their own content. For just $50.00, your summer reading content can have its own special site design! Minimal customization (e.g., side blocks) is available for an additional fee.

If you would like to have this design available for your library this summer, please order before April 1, 2012. Email Laura Solomon at laura@oplin.org to place your order now!

Technology Information

OPLIN provides information about technology and trends through many different communication tools, including:

Blogs – OPLIN 4Cast and What Does This Mean to Me, Laura?
Newsletters – The OPLIN Circuit and "Kit & Caboodle"
Social media – Facebook, SlideShare, and Twitter
- Ohio Public Library Facebook Directory
- Ohio Public Library Twitter Directory
Archive – front page news items from the OPLIN website

Also see the OPLIN reports and the special information items listed below.

Ohio Public Library Facebook Directory

Many public libraries and library-related organizations in Ohio maintain Facebook accounts to communicate with their patrons. Please send updates or additions to support@oplin.org.

Ohio Public Library Twitter Directory

Many public libraries and library-related organizations in Ohio maintain Twitter accounts to communicate with their patrons. Please send updates or additions to support@oplin.org.

See the Twitter Directory

State Library Social Media Listings

The State Library of Ohio compiled their own listing of social media sites of Ohio libraries in February 2010.

Sending Notifications to Cell Phones

OPLIN offers a free service that allows libraries to send notification messages directly to patrons' cellphones via standard Short Message Service (SMS) "text messages" instead of sending messages to their email accounts.

Prerequisites:

Your existing Integrated Library System (ILS) must be capable of sending notifications to patrons' email addresses.
You must inform OPLIN of the IP address of the server (usually your ILS server) that sends your email notifications.

Procedure

To use the service, you should ask a patron if they wish to receive messages by cell phone instead of by email; their normal text messaging charges will apply. (There is no cost to the library.)

If they want cell phone messages, you will enter their email address in your ILS as <cellphone_number>@sms.oplin.org.

Example

If the patron wishes to receive notifications at their cell phone number 614-123-4567, then you would put

6141234567@sms.oplin.org

in the email field of their patron record. Notifications will now be sent to their cell phone rather than to their normal email address.

If a patron replies to a text message, this reply will be sent to the email address that was used to send the notification. The return address is the one in the "From" or "Reply-To" field on your ILS or catalog server. If, however, your return address contains "noreply" or "no-reply," the patron will receive the following message:

We're sorry but we can't accept replies at this number, please contact your local library for more details.

The OPLIN SMS system accepts notices 24 hours a day, but only sends text messages between 9 AM and 9 PM. This is to allow libraries to continue sending email notices in the middle of the night, without possibly waking up patrons who keep their phones on the night stand.

Message format

All notifications sent to patrons' cell phones will be limited to 160 characters, which is the maximum length of a single text message, so your standard notification language must include all important information (library name, phone number, etc.) within those 160 characters.

The OPLIN SMS system uses *** as its delimiter to determine what text from your regular email messages will be sent to people's cell phones.

If you send an email to the system and no occurrence of *** is found, the system uses the first 160 characters of the email.
If you send an email with one occurrence of *** the system assumes that is the end of your 160 character message (so you don't have to pad your message with whitespace if it's short).
If the system finds two or more occurrences of *** it uses whatever you have between the first pair as your text message, taking the first 160 characters of that snippet.

Good examples of notices we've seen:: This is a reminder from the UAPL that 1 item(s) will soon be due. Please return or renew them by their due date. Visit www.ualibrary.org for more information.; You have items ready to pick up at the Lane Libraries.; Your hold is available from the Lakewood Public Library. It will be held for 10 days. Call 216-226-8275 for more information.

The Microsoft SMTP daemon typically uses an encoding for plain text that can cause "=" to appear at the end of lines. The OPLIN SMS system automatically strips those unwanted characters from your message.

The system also strips out any carriage returns or new-line codes that may be embedded in your message, so your message is formatted for optimum cell phone display.

The system automatically handles any base64 encoded email.

Questions?

Contact OPLIN Support (http://support.oplin.org).

Public Library Data Center

Each year, public libraries are asked to fill out various data surveys, such as the one just announced by the State Library. OPLIN has also asked libraries to complete a "Connectivity Survey" each August. These surveys are essential for long-term planning, especially when government funding may be involved.

OPLIN has been working with the State Library and OLC over the past few months to open an online library "data center" where libraries can store and retrieve some of the most commonly requested data. This data center serves a somewhat different function from the State Library survey. For libraries, it provides a place where you can store, update, and retrieve data about your library, and other public libraries, at any time. (The current data we have from libraries is already stored there.) For statewide organizations working on behalf of public libraries, it provides a place where we can quickly retrieve as-reported data that is more current -- but less accurate and detailed -- than the data that is eventually published by the State Library following an extensive process of editing and vetting.

The library data center replaces the annual OPLIN Connectivity Survey. Instead, we will ask libraries to make sure their statistical data is up-to-date in the data center only when we know that OPLIN (or OLC, or the State Library) is going to have a specific need for the data.

So how do you use the data center?

1) Go to http://oplin.org/datacenter

2) The first time you use the data center, you will need to click on the "I forgot my password" link and enter the library director's email address. Your password will be sent to the director's email.

2a) Once you have the password, go to http://oplin.org/datacenter, enter the library director's email address and the password.

3) After you've logged in, you'll see a menu for entering/editing various kinds of data about your library, or for retrieving data about any library.

Please give the data center a try. We think you'll find that it is a quick, easy tool for handling your statistical data.

E-Rate Information and Training

Did you know that every public library is eligible to receive E-rate money? At the very least, by filling out a few forms you can get as much as a 90% discount on your telephone bills!

The telephone companies and the federal government collect this money from every telephone customer, but unless you ask for it, this money just sits in Washington.

Because it is so important that libraries claim their E-rate money, OPLIN supports workshops on E-rate for public libraries each fall. The workshops are presented by Lorrie Germann, Educational Technology Consultant at eTech Ohio. Lorrie and other staff at eTech Ohio are also available to answer individual questions from public libraries about E-rate issues. You may contact Lorrie at 614-485-6050 or Lorrie.Germann@etech.ohio.gov.

E-Rate Technology Planning

Any public library filing for Priority 2 E-rate discounts must have an approved technology plan. In Ohio, Katrina Miday, Library Consultant–Technology is the person who approves these plans.

Katrina recommends that libraries use TechAtlas when creating their technology plans; WebJunction Ohio has a set of slides illustrating E-Rate Technology Planning with TechAtlas. She highly recommends that all public libraries write a technology plan even if one is not required for E-rate purposes. If you have questions about technology planning or your Plan, Katrina can be reached at (614) 466-1710, (800) 686-1532 or kmiday@library.ohio.gov.