Five hundred and ninety-seven (597) TexShare Consortium member libraries participated in the TexShare Databases Program in SFY 2022. TexShare facilitates the statewide acquisition of electronic resources, which resulted in a cost savings of $108,827,406.80 compared to vendor retail costs in SFY 2022.

Available 24 hours a day in the homes or offices of registered patrons of participating Texas libraries, these resources provide access to a wide range of subjects for Texas students and library patrons. They enable libraries to broaden the range of materials and services available to their patrons, providing access to broad multi-topic authoritative full-text content for both advanced scholars and the general public. TexShare electronic resources are selected with input from a representative group of Texas librarians, who review electronic resources offered through an open solicitation process.

TexShare core electronic resources are licensed statewide for participating libraries, who share in the licensing costs. Seventy-five core electronic resources were available to TexShare member libraries in SFY 2022; 6 of these were provided to both TexShare and to its sister TexQuest electronic resources program for public school districts and open enrollment charter schools. Database topics include homework help for students, consumer health information, general academic and business research, biography and genealogy, e-books, and career development resources.

The 75 resources provided through the TexShare Databases program were used 52,278,420 times (total item investigations) with 18,154,339 full-text and e-media accesses (total item requests) in SFY 2022.

To ensure that TexShare electronic resources can be used by participating institutions, vendors include training and outreach in the cost of the electronic resources. A total of 332 public, academic, and special librarians participated in TSLAC and vendor TexShare training sessions in SFY 2022.

E-Read Texas brings electronic books to Texans served by small community libraries in all parts of the state. E-Read Texas provides library e-books and the SimplyE e-reader application to make it possible for all Texans served by public libraries to access e-books. E-Read Texas started as a trial in SFY 2020 and became a full program under the legislative authorization provided for the TexShare Consortium in SFY 2021.

TSLAC funds implementation and hosting for the SimplyE mobile e-reader app for public libraries that either serve a population under 100,000 people based on data submitted to the Texas Public Libraries Annual Report or which have electronic materials expenditures of under $1 per capita. SimplyE was developed by the New York Public Library in partnership with other major libraries in response to challenges patrons face in accessing e-books. As of August 2022, 180 public libraries from all parts of Texas were able to use SimplyE so that their patrons could access not only collections of e-books licensed by the libraries themselves but also content licensed by TSLAC.

The E-Read Texas e-book collection primarily includes adult fiction and popular non-fiction and is most appropriate for an adult audience as described in the E-Read Texas Collection Development Policy available at https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ldn/ebooks. All content can be accessed using the SimplyE mobile application, although some titles can also be accessed online by anyone physically located in Texas. The collection is chosen to include titles that will be popular with patrons, with enough copies to keep hold lists short. The TexShare E- Books Working Group is responsible for creating the Collection Development Policy and the selection of content for the program.

The number of e-books ordered this year was 7,779; as of August 2022 a total of 17,398 e-books were available to patrons of participating libraries. These e-books were downloaded a total of 19,591 times in SFY 2022.

Available 24 hours a day in school and at home, these resources provide access to a wide range of subjects for Texas students at all grade levels. They support the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills(TEKS) standards from the Texas StateBoard of Education.

TexQuest electronic resources are selected with input from a representative group of Texas school librarians, who review electronic resources proposed through an open solicitation process.

During this program year, 872 public school districts and charter schools, with 8,570 elementary, middle, and high school campuses, participated in the TexQuest electronic resources program. TSLAC facilitates the statewide acquisition of electronic resources, which resulted in a savings of $139,040,016.32 compared to vendor retail costs in SFY2021. The 46 resources provided through the TexQuest program were used 87,464,548 times (total item investigations) with 28,498,726 full-text and e-media accesses(total item requests) in SFY2022.

To ensure that TexQuest electronic resources can be used by participating institutions, TSLAC contracts with an educational service center to provide support and training. A total of 3,120 school librarians and educators participated in training sessions provided by ESC-20 in FY2022, and 1,047 consulting sessions were recorded. Another 14 received training from a TexQuest vendor or TSLAC trainer.