by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Duval County’s budget received some rare good news when the Florida Department of State announced that it will provide its Electronic Library free of charge to local schools.
The library contains a dozen databases with resources that include electronic magazines, newspapers, almanacs, encyclopedias and books. Counties previously subscribed to the databases individually, but this year the state bought the set and is making it available to all 67 of Florida’s school districts.
Florida Electronic Library Director Mark Flynn didn’t know how much Duval County spent in subscriptions last year. But he said Leon County, which spent $439 million on its schools last year, spent $200,000 on the subscriptions. Duval County’s school budget is three times that of Leon County’s.
“What we’ve seen is that when counties have to pay for the databases themselves, they subscribe to maybe two or three, whatever they can afford,” said Flynn. “But now every county will have access to every database and they can now use the funds they would have spent here for other programs.”
The state spent more than $2 million to buy the database collection from Thomson Gale, a print and online publisher and subscription service. Flynn said the state was able to negotiate a discount price for the collection by bundling the databases. Thomson Gale also benefits from the cache that comes with about 2,600 schools statewide, he said.
The databases provide reference resources like encyclopedias and medical articles, but Flynn said the state’s first priority was to grab hundreds of thousands of magazine articles covering business, politics and current events.
“That was the No. 1 priority,” said Flynn. “Magazine and newspaper content is appropriate for kids to use. They provide high-quality information.”
The databases give students a reliable resource for Internet information, he said. Students who use the databases for schoolwork can be assured that the information is timely and accurate.
“You have to be aware that when you put a kid in front of a computer, you’re plugging him into a world of information. Some of it’s good. Some of it, you’re not sure where it came from. By directing them to these databases, you’re pointing them toward quality information,” said Flynn.
The electronic library could have its greatest impact in smaller counties and counties, like Duval, where the literacy rate lags, said Flynn.
The Internet is increasingly seen as a cost-effective educational resource in the midst of a statewide trend of tight budgets. Barbara Gubbin, director of Duval County’s public libraries, said the Internet could be an effective tool to mitigate the effects brought on by her own budget problems.
One of Gubbin’s priorities is to open a virtual library branch available from home or office computers. Internet collections, she said, have a greater capacity than even the largest library and are always accessible. The bricks-and-mortar branches, meanwhile, are shortening their hours to make up for a lack of funds.