The break for the holidays is fast approaching and we are all eagerly anticipating the last day of school before a well-deserved break. Most of us spend a portion of the last day tidying up, wrapping up a few outstanding tasks, and maybe even wrapping up a few gifts. This year, we are hoping you will spend a little time this week doing some tidying up of your school district's Web site as well.

We have learned that there are a number of school districts that have the username and password to access the INFOhio’s Core Collection of Electronic Resources included on the school district's Web site. In some cases it might be a student handbook containing the username and password that had been put online. In other cases, the person posting the Web site did not realize it would be publicly accessible. We appreciate that schools want to promote the use of the INFOhio Electronic Resources, but the username and password should not be made available to the general public.

Please review your school district’s Web site not only for the INFOhio username and password, but also the username and password you might be using to access other resources to which your school district subscribes. You might have a search feature available specifically for your school district's Web site, but if you do not, please be aware that the advanced search feature of many search engines allow the user to specify the domain that they want to search.

If you find any documents on your school district's Web site that have the username and password, please work with the appropriate school staff to address the situation. It is recommended that you replace the username and password with a statement similar to the following: A username and password to access the INFOhio Core Collection of Electronic Resources is available from the school library media center.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your regional ITC or contact INFOhio at webmaster@infohio.org.

And, of course, please enjoy the holidays. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Charles Schmeising
INFOhio Technical Services