Negotiations to replace the contracts expiring July 31, 2019 are complete and new contracts have been signed. These contracts are for five years (August 1, 2019 – July 31, 2024) with the option to extend each for two additional years (through July 31, 2026).
All resources previously offered via Britannica, EBSCO, and ProQuest will continue under new contracts, with some additional content. An additional contract has been signed with InfoBase Learning.
Vendors under previous contracts:
Encyclopedia Britannica
No change to content. Under the new contract, all existing editions (public, education, Spanish language) continue as previously.
(NOTE: Britannica E-STAX digital books are purchased titles under a separate agreement)
EBSCO
All existing resources continue as previously. Learning Express will be enhanced with additional content in these centers:
- Career Center Plus
- College Center Plus
- Placement Test Preparation
- Prepare for College
And one new Center:
- Mobile App for Tests, eBooks and Flashcards
One new EBSCO resource will be added:
Read It! is designed for middle and high school students and adults who have a basic foundation in English grammar and reading but need adapted reading material for a variety of subjects. It offers resources to help build background knowledge, conduct research and improve study skills.
Read It! Content Includes:
- Nonfiction articles and reference texts
- Comprehension tests
- Images
- Step-by-step research guides
- "Read Out Loud" text-to-speech tool that enables students to highlight and listen to text
- Lexile Measures to indicate a text's level of reading difficulty
- Links to further content that increases topic comprehension
ProQuest
All existing resources (HeritageQuest and Nursing & Allied Health) continue as previously.
Two new ProQuest resources will be added:
US Newsstream provides national and regional news sources from the U.S. and includes popular titles not included in EBSCO Newspaper Source Plus, such as The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, and Chicago Tribune.
Fold3 is a resource for genealogists, historians, veterans and their families. It provides access to US military records, including stories, photos, and personal documents of those who served. Content begins with the Revolutionary War and continues to the present.
New vendor:
InfoBase Learning
This new collection includes the following resources:
The World Almanac is a classic statistical reference tool. With age-specific resources, users can choose the right resource for their needs. Resources to help children develop online research skills are somewhat hard to find; the World Almanac offers many kinds of support material in addition to basic searching. The Kids edition provides resources for homework, reports, and projects, as well as support materials for teachers. The Kids Elementary edition, in addition to providing illustrated articles written for young children, includes videos, games, and other resources.
The Mailbox School & District is a teacher-created, editor-reviewed resource in print and online. Resources include worksheets, crafts, forms, songs, games, graphic organizers, patterns, clip art, cards and more for pre-kindergarten to grade 6.
The
Health Reference Center is a resource useful to student nurses as well as the public. It includes in-depth coverage of body systems, current health issues, major diseases and conditions, treatments, and procedures, as well as health and nutrition information specific to men, women, children, teens, and seniors. In addition to authoritative text sources, there are 5,000 informational video clips and more than 2,500 searchable illustrations.
Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center is a career exploration and planning resource. It includes 3,000 articles, a graduate and undergraduate school finder database, as well as databases for internships and apprenticeships, financial aid, education to career planning timelines, a career assessment, career profiles, a sample resume and cover letter database, and an industry associations and resources directory.
World News Digest provides over 300,000 original summaries and essays on current events.
Bloom’s Literature includes critical essays, author biographies, interviews, and profiles, as well as character analyses. More than 1,000 poetry and classic works of literature are available in full-text. There are essays on how to write papers, full-length videos of classic stage performances, and film adaptations of literary works. There is also an extensive database on Shakespeare and his works.
Issues & Controversies presents articles in pro/con format that are supported by statistics, timelines, and primary sources. Many issues feature original videos and educator resources, as well as debate videos, newspaper editorials, audio content, and breaking news.
What about Gale? Mango? Universal Class?
All resources not provided by Britannica, EBSCO, or ProQuest will continue to be available as before. These unexpired contracts were not part of the RFP process.
Access
We don’t anticipate major problems making new content available from previous vendors, though there may be some minor steps involved.
Please note: While we will be making direct geolocation links available for new products, it will be a selective process and some resources may only be reachable through vendor interfaces.
We hope to have InfoBase access in place as soon as possible.
Funding
The State Library intends to fund the entire package cost using budgeted funds, and will not be pursing contributions for FY 2020, or as long as we are able to support the cost. We are extremely grateful for the support and the many offers to help offset the cost with contributions.
Thank You!
A big Thank You to all of our advisors, survey takers, trial participants, and reviewers. Extra big thanks to our Very Special Agent Janet Anderson-Story for guidance and inspiration throughout the past year. You all played critical roles in making this a reality.