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What is it? Wide variety of reference books online including English and bilingual dictionaries, maps and atlases, timelines, an encyclopedia, and subject references – from Oxford University Press. Why use it? Search for encyclopedia articles. Identify quotations. Consult the dictionaries. Explore the subject reference books.
Public Library Data Center
Each year, public libraries are asked to fill out various data surveys, such as the one just announced by the State Library. OPLIN has also asked libraries to complete a "Connectivity Survey" each August. These surveys are essential for long-term planning, especially when government funding may be involved.
OPLIN has been working with the State Library and OLC over the past few months to open an online library "data center" where libraries can store and retrieve some of the most commonly requested data. This data center serves a somewhat different function from the State Library survey. For libraries, it provides a place where you can store, update, and retrieve data about your library, and other public libraries, at any time. (The current data we have from libraries is already stored there.) For statewide organizations working on behalf of public libraries, it provides a place where we can quickly retrieve as-reported data that is more current -- but less accurate and detailed -- than the data that is eventually published by the State Library following an extensive process of editing and vetting.
The library data center replaces the annual OPLIN Connectivity Survey. Instead, we will ask libraries to make sure their statistical data is up-to-date in the data center only when we know that OPLIN (or OLC, or the State Library) is going to have a specific need for the data.
So how do you use the data center?
1) Go to http://oplin.org/datacenter
2) The first time you use the data center, you will need to click on the "I forgot my password" link and enter the library director's email address. Your password will be sent to the director's email.
2a) Once you have the password, go to http://oplin.org/datacenter, enter the library director's email address and the password.
3) After you've logged in, you'll see a menu for entering/editing various kinds of data about your library, or for retrieving data about any library.
Please give the data center a try. We think you'll find that it is a quick, easy tool for handling your statistical data.