by Marsha McDevitt-Stredney, State Library of Ohio

In partnership with WebJunction, the State Library of Ohio launched WebJunction Ohio (WJOH) in 2008. The Ohio site launch occurred in conjunction with the new WebJunction platform release. This collaboration provides new and exciting opportunities including: online courses provided for no fee to all library staff in Ohio, content rich resources, social networking through groups and discussions, and the ability for members to post documents and add comments. In addition, members can attend live online interactive trainings or meetings using Wimba, track statewide events through the E*vents calendar system, and keep up to date with news and information through BlogJunction Ohio.  By the end of October, there were 1171 WJOH members.

How has the launch changed our current website? The State Library Librarians Toolkit is migrating to WJOH. Resources for librarians that would have been added to our current website are now only available on WJOH. For example, we’ve recently added new content such as health and wellness information for library patrons, information about new state library programs, and grant opportunities

The E*vents Calendar resource provides a one-stop shop for library staff to find out about upcoming events. Library organizations have been encouraged to post their training and events through the calendar system. The system does not coordinate the registration process for each organization. When a user clicks on an event, information is displayed along with a link to that library organization's registration page.

The Professional Development department switched from using WebEx, the long time eClassroom for teaching online interactive library training courses, to Wimba.
The Wimba environment enables library organizations to create and use virtual meeting rooms and classrooms.

Thanks to the valuable input of the pre-production advisory committee and contributions by our members, WJOH is off to a great start.