Some librarians in Ohio are worried about the future of one of the nation’s top state resource-sharing networks.
The librarians say that over the past two months they have noticed unusual outages in services run by the Ohio Library and Information Network, or OhioLINK. The group is a consortium of 88 Ohio college and university libraries and the State Library of Ohio. OhioLINK is used both as a way to share university materials online and to negotiate prices for outside resources.
Databases run by OhioLINK have occasionally been temporarily unavailable, frustrating scholars and students doing research.
Victoria Montavon, dean of the University of Cincinnati Libraries, said the problems were worrisome because grant-supported projects run by her library rely on OhioLINK to function, and that outages effectively block users from key archives.
“This is a centerpiece in providing resources. Millions of articles are downloaded across the OhioLINK organization,” Ms. Montavon said, adding that the systems also broker exchanges of physical books. “Something like 700,000 print items travel between libraries [per year]. So it’s a very high-use, high-volume resource between libraries.”
Eric Fingerhut, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, which runs OhioLINK, said that the outages are temporary, caused as officials attempt to move their systems to the statewide computing network capable of storing more information. He said that the outages should stop completely when the transfer is finished in six to eight months.
Tom Sanville, the longtime executive director of OhioLINK, announced his resignation Tuesday. Mr. Fingerhut said that Mr. Sanville did a good job and that he thought the technological transition was an appropriate time to resign.
Mr. Sanville could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
7 Responses to Glitches in Statewide System Worry Ohio Librarians
11211876 - January 6, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Putting vital information services onto a platform that has been (and will continue to be) unstable for months is bad management of technology. And creating an administrative environment where a leader like Tom Sanville gets pushed out is bad management of good people.
procrustes - January 6, 2010 at 8:31 pm
OhioLINK worked fine while it had a governing board of university provosts and autonomy. The problems started after Fingerhut’s powergrab when he dissolved the governing board and took over. It is right up there with his “University System of Ohio” consisting of a web site and a strategic plan with contradictory goals that was created with no input from stakeholders. It is a sad day for Ohio when effective and visionary leaders like Tom Sanville are forced out by ineffective political hacks.
libraryecc - January 7, 2010 at 8:02 am
Sanville is visionary. Fingerhut is myopic.
mbelvadi - January 7, 2010 at 11:49 am
I know nothing about the internal political situation in Ohio, but as a librarian from outside that state who has watched the development of OhioLINK with admiration, I think it would be a very great loss to have one of America’s crown jewels in academic library systems ruined by a few petty or incompetent egos, as other commenters are suggesting. OhioLINK has been a standard that other states’ libraries look to emulate. Don’t let it be ruined without a fight!
itlibrarian - January 7, 2010 at 12:12 pm
Chancellor Fingerhut’s comments may leave a false impression about cause and effect between Sanville’s resignation and the instability in OhioLINK services. As those of us in OhioLINK know, there was an administrative reorganization and rapid shifting of staff responsibilities in the newly created “Educational Technology Division” under the Chancellor’s office that preceded these service and support concerns. Our impression here in Ohio that Sanville’s resignation was because that he could no longer stomach what was happening as service degraded. OhioLINK staff and Sanville have been extraordinarily circumspect in discussing what was going on — it is the library staff at participating OhioLINK institutions that are increasingly worried and outspoken about recent events.Really — what kind of academic IT management ever, ever introduces or schedules a major IT migration in November/December (or April/May)? Students and faculty rely on library resources heavily during academic crunch times as papers and finals are due. This was a huge miscalculation on the part of the new administrative structure and leadership — not that it was ever really clear who was calling the shots after the reorganization into the Educational Technology Division. If you want a sad and concise history of the recent instabilities starting with late October, check out OhioLINK on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ohiolink
libman - January 8, 2010 at 11:19 am
I cannot comment on OhioLINK as an organization, as I am not knowledgeable about it. I did follow the twitter link itlibrarian posted. While it is true that there have been outages since October if one cranks back over the last year or more it is quite clear the recent outages are nothing new. In fact, the total time lost is significantly less than say the 8 week outage EJC had last February. It would appear the article selectively focuses on a particular period of time. Why?
stevesullivan - January 8, 2010 at 1:49 pm
->While it is true that there have been outages since October if one cranks back over the last year or more it is quite clear the recent outages are nothing new.Actually, as an OhioLINK librarian, I can say that the major EJC outage was a unique situation, more an anomaly than a pattern. The current trend seems to be regular though. Moreover, I think the record over at least the past year is attributable to Fingerhut. Sanville resigned this week, but he’s been dealing with this stuff for a while now.