Charting the Heavens with GALILEO

William Gray Potter, University Librarian of the University of Georgia, dazzled Texas academic librarians at the Texas Council of State University Librarians meeting September 25 with visions of the potential of TexShare by describing the growth and development of GALILEO, the Georgia Library Learning Online database.

Begun as a project similar to TexShare, GALILEO has now eclipsed its Texas predecessor by all relevant measures: level of funding, range of services offered, breadth of participation, and volume of usage.

GALILEO is now funded at an annual budget of over $10 million (from the Georgia Lottery), compared to TexShare’s approximate $1 million per year. GALILEO offers academic library users over 120 databases, including Current Contents, Britannica Online, GALE, Academic Press, Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, and Chadwyck-Healy.

Like TexShare, GALILEO began operation as a public university academic library project; however, the project has systematically expanded to encompass other types of libraries. In FY 1997, the project expanded to include the state’s 32 technical institutes and 31 private academic libraries. FY 1997 funding also included support for inclusion of Georgia’s 56 regional public library systems and FY 1998 funding will allow membership by all 180 public libraries in the state. School libraries will be allowed to join beginning in FY 1998, with complete participation expected by FY 1999. GALILEO administrators and state leaders envision a system in which all Georgians can access a core set of databases and are currently offering patrons of all participating institutions such resources as UMI full text, Ebsco full text, Colliers Encyclopedia, ERIC, Georgia State Documents, and OCLC FirstSearch.

Statistics for the last 12 months indicate the high demand for these resources: 3.7 million searches, 2.4 million (65%) of which are against local files, and 1.6 million full text articles accessed.

Potter described an emerging vision of an electronic library for all citizens in Georgia. The broad appeal of this powerful vision has struck a chord with legislators and the public who can readily see the advantages and cost benefit of such access to information. But Potter also sounded a warning note, saying that this message is easy to oversell. It is important to stress that these are largely new services, that the electronic library does not replace the print one, and that while these resources cost less to purchase collectively than they would individually, they do not reduce expenditures in participating institutions.

Nevertheless, Potter left Texas academic librarians with the seeds of inspiration for what TexShare could grow to become over time.