BadgerLink
Provide Enhanced Funding through the Universal Service Fund
What is BadgerLink?
- It’s a project of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning.
- Its goal is to provide access to quality online information resources for Wisconsin residents in cooperation with the state's public, school, academic, and special libraries and Internet Service Providers.
- BadgerLink resources are available through its website and through links on many library web pages.
- Most libraries also provide access to BadgerLink from public access computers within the library.
What does BadgerLink provide?
- Access to 11,000 full text magazines and reference materials and nearly 700 full text newspapers titles.
- Citations and abstracts are provided for an additional 2,000 titles.
- BadgerLink also connects users to WISCAT, the online catalog of WI library holdings, and provides a directory of links to library, education, government, and general reference sites that may be of interest to our online community.
How is BadgerLink funded and who uses it?
- The project is funded through the Wisconsin Universal Service Fund.
- Wisconsin residents use this service extensively. It is estimated that BadgerLink users conduct more than 16,000,000 searches annually.
What are the advantages of negotiating a statewide contract for online resources?
- Statewide contracts provide savings in both time and money. Local library staff does not have to review vendor services and bids, negotiate with the vendor, pay invoices, monitor vendor performance, and arrange for training.
- The cost of purchase under state contracts results in savings of at least $45 million to Wisconsin citizens, compared to what would be spent if each library contracted separately for the service.
- Under the state contract all types of libraries and all residents are able to use the same services from home as well as at their libraries.
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