December 11, 2018
RALEIGH, NC - The Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK), a consortium of Ohio’s college and university libraries and the State Library of Ohio, has chosen to use VitalSource and its Verba Connect™ tool to analyze and monitor market prices on commercial textbooks with the goal of maintaining competitive Inclusive Access pricing for Ohio students in higher education.
“It’s encouraging to see libraries and institutions collaborating to identify avenues to reduce costs and improve outcomes for students,” said Pep Carrera, president of VitalSource. “Improving postsecondary affordability is critical; course material costs should not serve as a barrier to higher education. VitalSource is pleased to play a role in lowering prices so more students in Ohio can access quality educational materials necessary to succeed in college.”
In 2018, OhioLINK negotiated and secured statewide Inclusive Access pricing agreements with commercial publishers on behalf of its membership, which includes 89 institutions of higher education. VitalSource’s Verba Connect tool will assist OhioLINK in ensuring said price agreements remain competitive compared to national market prices and fluctuations.
“We’re using Verba Connect—which bookstores use to make sure their Inclusive Access pricing is competitive in the market—for our own unique needs,” said Gwen Evans, Executive Director of OhioLINK. “We’re not selling content, but we do have an ‘OhioLINK price’ that we want to ensure is competitive with other readily available sources of textbooks. Verba Connect allows us to employ data visualizations and real-time market information to analyze the competitiveness of our deals, which is of crucial importance to us.”
Inclusive Access allows students to receive their required course materials on the first day of class, reducing lost instructional time and positioning students for greater academic achievement. The Verba Connect platform also provides tools for every element of Inclusive Access management, from setting the right price and communicating with students to managing opt-out and opt-in decisions.
VitalSource’s Verba Connect application manages Inclusive Access programs at over 100 campuses in the United States and Canada. VitalSource was recently awarded the Inclusive Access program at Ohio University.
About VitalSource | get.vitalsource.com
VitalSource Technologies LLC, part of Ingram Content Group, is improving the learning experience by making it easier to create and deliver effective and affordable content. The preferred choice among educational institutions and companies for digital learning materials, VitalSource helps over 1,000 educational content providers create and deliver seamless interactive learning experiences through its exclusive Bookshelf® platform to millions of learners at 7,000 institutions. Bookshelf users opened more than 20 million digital textbooks last year and read more than 3.3 billion pages. Follow VitalSource on Twitter at @VitalSource.
About OhioLINK
Connecting libraries, learning, and discovery. Established in 1992, the Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) is Ohio’s statewide academic library consortium serving 118 libraries, 89 institutions of higher education, the State Library of Ohio, and more than 570,000 end users. Delivering both IT infrastructure and content negotiation, OhioLINK provides students, researchers, faculty, and staff with access to digital research collections rivaling top university libraries in the United States and internationally—at a fraction of the cost. OhioLINK also connects library services, print, and digital collections among its member institutions and manages collaborative services, including eTutoring, statewide Affordable Learning textbook initiatives, and open educational resources. A member of the Ohio Technology Consortium of the Ohio Department of Higher Education, OhioLINK creates a competitive advantage for its members and supports student and researcher success in the state of Ohio. Learn more at ohiolink.edu.
Media Contacts:
Erin McCarthy, VitalSource
617-314-3789, erin.mccarthy@vitalsource.com
Zach Hunt, The Strategy Group
615-321-3110, zach@tsgnashville.com