Dear Colleagues,

I regret to announce that INFOhio's Electronic Resources Vendor Preview will conclude at the end of this school year. There will be no online preview period during January, February and March 2008. While the program has been popular with students, educators and vendors, INFOhio's limited funding and staff reductions make this decision necessary.

INFOhio has offered a yearly Vendor Preview for about a decade, affording educators, students and parents opportunities to evaluate hundreds of online products. INFOhio has provided preview services at no charge to vendors. Preview 2007 included 132 products from 30 vendors.

While previewed products have become part of INFOhio's Core Collection of Electronic Resources at times, the main purpose of the preview has been to encourage districts and buildings to use local funds to supplement the Core Collection. INFOhio's position remains that the Core Collection is a basic suite of products that cannot be expected to meet the information needs of all students and educators.

Preview 2007, the current school year's program, continues with a recently-revised Price List that participating vendors have agreed to honor through June 30, 2008. If you anticipate available funding for online resources to supplement the Core Collection, I urge you to contact vendors to arrange for local previews. Vendors are enthusiastic about serving Ohio K-12 schools, and most have preview and/or demonstration sites.

On behalf of Ohio's K-12 community, I want to express my sincere appreciation to those companies that have participated in the current Vendor Preview and in past years. Special thanks goes to vendor representatives and technical support staff who have supported our efforts.

Thank you for your understanding and your continued support for INFOhio!

Sincerely,
Theresa M. Fredericka
INFOhio Executive Director