William Sullivan, Administrator, Connecticut Digital Library

iCONN provides online access to essential information resources to every citizen in Connecticut through public libraries, schools, colleges, universities and homes. Since Lt. Governor M. Jodi Rell held a press conference at the State Library officially announcing iCONN on April 9, 2001, the following activities have occurred:

• Press releases and other materials were mailed to all public, school and academic libraries, to all legislators, to all newspapers and all education-related organizations in Connecticut.

• 5,000 iCONN-specific brochures and 1,700 mouse pads were distributed to libraries.

• Locally printable promotional materials were added to the iCONN website.

• Gale distributed 100 bookmarks to every public, academic and hospital library (distribution of bookmarks to all school libraries will be made in September)

• Thirty new databases were added, including:

For K-12 and Public Libraries:

• The Hartford Courant (Full-Text from 1992 - Present) includes obituaries/death notices, all staff written news features, special interest stories, daily columns, letters to the editor and sports reports

• Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated - over 100,000 in-depth profiles and 28,000 images including Junior Authors & Illustrators, World Authors and Current Biography Illustrated

• InfoTrac Custom Newspapers - The New York Times Full Text - 12 month rolling archive.

• DISCovering Collection Authors, Biography, Science, U.S. History, World History, Multicultural America

• EXPLORING Novels, Short Stories, Poetry, Shakespeare

• U.X.L. Biographies, Multicultural, Science

• U.X.L. Jr. Worldmark Discovering Authors, Encyclopedia of Canadian Provinces, Encyclopedia of Nations, Encyclopedia of States, Encyclopedia of World Cultures

• Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations, Encyclopedia of States, Encyclopedia of Cultures

For Academic Libraries:

• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe, Statistical Universe Basic Power Tables

• ATLA (American Theological Library Association) Religion Database

• CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)

• PsycINFO

• ABI Inform Global full-text with Images

The selection of databases was based on ballots cast at the iCONN March 26, 2001 kickoff conference, input from subsequent trials, and recommendations from The Council of Connecticut Academic Library Directors (CCALD) and the Department of Higher Education. We also recently created a linkage between over 2,000 titles listed in the Connecticut Union List of Serials (CULS), which is part of the reQuest statewide library catalog, and full-text titles in InfoTrac OneFile, the largest Gale periodical database. Access to all iCONN databases requires authentication for onsite access by IP address.

All train-the-trainer training of public, academic and public school trainers has been completed. Training of public school library media specialists, teachers and administrators begins in July.

• Twenty training sessions were coordinated by the Western Connecticut Library Council for public and academic librarians

• Three training sessions were held for Regional Education Service Center technology coordinators

• Seven hands-on training sessions were provided for library media specialists, teachers and administrators, with an additional 40 sessions planned during the school year. Training for public schools is being coordinated by the six Regional Education Service Centers.

iCONN Home Page includes a "Request For Comments" (RFC) (320kb) (This file is provided in Portable Document Format (PDF) and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing.) that describes our current thinking about the future directions of the reQuest Statewide Library Catalog and associated services. The RFC is also intended to provide a framework and a catalyst for discussions with potential suppliers and the library community about next-generation reQuest services. This document will change over time as it reflects these discussions about both what is desirable as well as what can realistically be achieved. By publishing and maintaining this RFC, the State Library hopes vendors will be better prepared to respond in a timely fashion when the procurement process is designed and implemented. We invite comments, suggestions and questions.

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