INFOhio Discovery Portal now includes the INFOhio eBook Collection
Message from INFOhio
September 1, 2011

INFOhio transforms teaching and learning by connecting Ohio’s K-12 students, teachers and parents with educational resources through the power of information technology. The INFOhio Discovery Portal now includes the INFOhio eBook Collection. Both resources are now available at no additional cost for schools using INFOhio Library Automation and through a subscription for non-INFOhio automated schools. [MS Word OR PDF 4 pgs]

Access to these new resources empowers the INFOhio strategic goals of:

	Ensuring continued and equitable access to information and learning resources for all Ohio PreK-12 students, educators and parents in support of Ohio’s Academic Content Standards
	Helping all students and teachers access and engage with the right content, in the right format, at the right time to meet their learning needs through professionally selected resources
	Instituting an efficient and effective delivery model for accessing needed 21st century learning tools to help students acquire 21st century skills

INFOhio Discovery Portal: websites, videos, electronic resources, e-books
The Discovery Portal provides one-stop resource shopping for your students, staff, administrators and parents. All Discovery Portal resources are searchable 24/7 with one button.

Discovery Portal is a sophisticated product that combines:

	Websites:  Over 22,000 age-appropriate websites selected by Ohio educators
	Electronic Resources: A federated search engine aggregates results from a number of INFOhio electronic resource databases. These databases have been chosen to match the room or subject area the Portal visitor has selected.
	Best of the Web: A repository for more than three million high-quality websites
	Digital Video Collection: Over 2,000 high quality education videos, 80 of which feature closed captioning
	INFOhio eBook Collection: 600-plus e-book public-domain titles from Project Gutenberg and 69 audio books from ThoughtAudio, mostly classic literature titles selected from schools’ recommended reading lists. Available in multiple e-book formats for downloading to electronic devices or for viewing online. Summaries and Lexiles have been added, when available.
	Additional features
	Within each Discovery Portal room, featured content such as How Do I questions, Cool Links and Fun & Games engage visitors in the Research Discover Learn process. In addition to the student-centered content for elementary, middle and high schools, the Discovery Portal contains a Children's & Young Adult Literature room, as well as three guides for Parents, Educators and Librarians. Help Resources for INFOhio's Discovery Portal includes Getting Started Guides and other promotional and in-service materials. A series of Spotlights with specific instructional strategies is being linked from the Help Resources page eBook Help provides instruction on searching and downloading titles in the eBook Collection.

INFOhio eBook Collection
The INFOhio eBook Collection contains titles available for online viewing or download to electronic devices. In  addition to all the e-books already available through the Core Collection of Electronic Resources in LearningExpress Library, Literature Online and World Book Advanced, this collection includes 600-plus e-book public-domain titles from Project Gutenberg and 69 audio books from ThoughtAudio. These classic literature authors and titles were selected from school recommended reading lists and are available in multiple e-book formats.

	Collection content
	The initial collection of 600-plus titles were drawn from Project Gutenberg and ThoughtAudio. Selection and evaluation by INFOhio e-book team was based on school reading lists. ODE exemplar titles were included, when available. Titles have been cataloged for complete search capabilities including authority control subject headings and grade levels. Titles have Lexile, content and summary information, when available.  The list of titles included in the eBook Collection, sorted by Title or sorted by Author, is updated daily.
	Collection access
	The eBook Collection can be searched either through the INFOhio online catalog (CAT) or the Discovery Portal. Students, teachers and parents have unlimited access 24/7 from home or school. Books can be viewed on computer screen. Books can be downloaded in multiple e-book formats (mobi, epub, pdf, html, mp3).  E-reader devices and apps provide added features (i.e., electronic bookmarking, note taking, dictionary access, etc.) INFOhio provides help in searching and downloading eBook Collection titles.
	Collection development
	Selection of titles for the INFOhio eBook Collection follows the guidelines of the of INFOhio's Collection Development Policy. [PDF 4 pgs] Titles must meet one of the following criteria for inclusion:   Works of high quality that meet the selection criteria of Ohio schools School recommended/required reading lists included in Curriculum Resource Catalog Professionally recognized reading list like the ALA Best Books for the College Bound Review or literary article in authoritative journal recommends title or series for K-12 audience Recommendations   INFOhio welcomes input from teachers and librarians. Requests for titles to be added to the eBook Collection can be made by  contacting your school's ITC provider or submitting a request to INFOhio.

For non-INFOhio automated buildings/districts interested in experiencing INFOhio’s Discovery Portal, including the new INFOhio eBook Collection, contact support@infohio.org for a trial username/password.

A free INFOhio webinar, The Discovery Portal and Student Learning, will be held Thursday, September 8, 2011, 3:30-4:15 p.m. More information and a session link

Theresa M. Fredericka
INFOhio Executive Director