Sometimes the libraries aren't funded if money flows into the general operating budget for a school district. The money goes for something else. This is what it would take to automate the remaining 3,200 public school libraries not on INFOhio's DRA MultiLIS system. She envisions expanding offerings to a full core collection. A small but growing number of schools buy their automation services through INFOhio.
Some sites also charge hardware and telecommunications fees.
Still, such advanced technology doesn't erase the fact that many Ohio school libraries are still saddled with card catalogs. The contrast is even more alarming considering that once these same students reach the state's universities and colleges, they'll slam into OhioLINK, the Buckeye State's well-funded network of some 60 college and university libraries, which is advanced enough to concentrate on developing collections of digitized images, audio, and video. Even in these straits, the lure of being part of one big system that uses the same automation vendor isn't pulling everyone in. Use of INFOhio's DRA system, for example, is patchy in urban districts, although that may change over time. Its largest district to date, Dayton, just came on board to automate the first 12 of its 65 schools.