A message for our library community:
Please accept my apology for the lack of communication surrounding the most recent procurement for E-Resources, which resulted in the loss of Academic Search Main Edition on December 31, 2024. While we know that a mid-year decision is horrible timing for schools, I should have been more proactive in working with EBSCO to continue access for our students with important work in their EBSCO accounts, and for teachers with lesson plans that use it. The decision to replace this subscription with Gale’s Academic OneFile was based on two primary factors: 1) the Gale cost allowed us to procure four other databases on topics required by OCL within the budget provided, and 2) the switch allows students to use the Gale interface from elementary through high school and college levels.
The December 31st expiration was unusual, and based on a five-year contract that existed prior to HSLC taking over the procurement process. Nevertheless, this information should have been provided to you well in advance of the term expiration in order to give you time to formulate a planned exit path. Our current practice is to set all procurement terms for July-June periods, in order to avoid this situation.
Our job at this moment is to fix the problem we caused. We have negotiated with EBSCO to restore access for all public and school users through June 30, 2025, and Academic Search Main Edition will be available by the end of the week. We are assured that user information in individual accounts will be present when access is restored. We will send an email update as soon as Academic Search Main Edition is available again. Starting Monday, January 27, if you encounter any issues accessing Academic Search Main Edition, please reach out to
HSLC Support for assistance.
As we speak, HSLC is also entertaining proposals for subscriptions that are similar to Bookflix and Trueflix, whose terms expire on June 30, 2025. This may result in a renewal or replacement of one or both. This represents the last procurement that pre-dates our involvement with the bid process. We will know the status of this process by March 1st and will communicate it to you no later than March 30, 2025.
Once again, I sincerely apologize for missing the mark on this, and for not keeping you apprised of these procurements. We will do better in the future. Feel free to share this note with others who are not subscribed to the Access Pennsylvania News e-newsletter.