Ohio Senate recognizes INFOhio for service to classroom instruction

The Ohio Senate has recognized INFOhio, the Information Network for Ohio Schools, for its two decades of service to Ohio students, parents and educators. Senate Resolution 163, adopted in February by the full Senate, was presented to INFOhio Executive Director Theresa M. Fredericka and other INFOhio leaders during a Senate Education Committee meeting on March 9, 2010, by committee chair Gary Cates (R-West Chester). 

INFOhio provides a range of services to Ohio’s K-12 community that foster information literacy and media literacy through the use of technology:

• INFOhio's Core Collection of Electronic Resources is available from any Internet-connected computer in the school library, classroom and computer lab. INFOhio also provides use from home for students, their parents and teachers who have access to the Internet after school hours. The Core Collection is available without charge 24/7/365 to all students in public, private, parochial, charter and home-school environments. The collection includes a range of encyclopedias, dictionaries and databases that provide library resources, educational videos and primary source materials.

• INFOhio has automated almost 2,500 Ohio K-12 schools, providing online catalogs of school library resources searchable from any Internet-connected computer and a circulation management system for check in/out, overdues, inventory and reports. This integrated software package is used by more than 1.1 million students in almost 500 school districts.

• To ensure that electronic resources and online tools improve learning in Ohio, INFOhio provides instructional development resources and training so educators can better use our Core Collection of Electronic Resources, the World Wide Web and other instructional materials schools acquire.

 

Hillsboro Middle/High School students have access to magazine articles through the electronic database, EBSCO, and can access a bank of practice tests through Learning Express Library. These are just a couple of the INFOHIO electronic resources linked to the library page on the school website. To use these resources from home students need a username and password. They may call the school library at 393-1121 for this information.

In her remarks to the Senate Education Committee, Fredericka expressed appreciation for “recognizing the efforts of everyone in the INFOhio community to improve instruction and learning in our state. The past two decades have been exciting and rewarding, especially the expressions of thanks we have received from students, parents and educators. INFOhio strives to make the right resource available to the right learner at the right time. We have been assisted by other agencies and organizations, but nothing has been more critical to our success than the bi-partisan support we have received from the Ohio Senate and Ohio House of Representatives. I know everyone in the INFOhio community will be deeply grateful for the recognition this Senate committee has exemplified today,” she said.

 

“The INFOhio delivery model is an efficient and effective way to deliver statewide services to all Ohio students and educators. We think no other state does it better,” Fredericka added. 

Accepting the Senate resolution with Fredericka were Donna Davis Norris, Co-Chairperson, INFOhio Governing Board, and Assistant Director, SouthWest Ohio Computer Association (SWOCA); Bruce Hawkins, Chief Executive Officer, Management Council of the Ohio Education Computer Network; and Sarah Thornbery, School Librarian, Springboro Junior High School, and 2010 President of the Ohio Educational Library Media Association (OELMA).