OPAL: Ohio Private Academic Libraries. A consortium that shares an online book catalog and other library network services. Sometimes people refer to OPAL as just the catalog, as in, “I found it in OPAL”. Lourdes is a member of OPAL. As a group we had enough money to join …
OhioLINK: This is a consortium of 89 Universities and college libraries that pool funds and share resources. Students, faculty and staff of these institutions have access to physical items, as well as electronic books, videos, music, images and periodicals. You can request items be sent here from other libraries. You can also go to other institutions (UT, BG, Owens) and check out books using your Lourdes’ ID. Sometimes students say “I need to use OhioLINK” and what they mean to say is, “I need to use the OhioLINK databases…
OhioLINK Databases : Electronic collections providing access to indexed abstracts and many full text articles, images, and videos. These are available on campus to everyone. When you are off-campus access is through a proxy which means you will have to provide proof you are a member of OhioLINK. Lourdes’ users provide their barcode found at the bottom of their IDs. Sometimes students tell me that aren’t allowed to use the databases because an assignment says not to use articles found on the Internet. (EBSCO is just one database provider.) 
The Internet (the Net) and the WWW (World Wide Web): These 2 terms are used interchangeably but there is a difference. The Internet is the larger system over which the Web and email functions. We use the Internet to access the information indexed in an OhioLINK database. It is a paid library resource of published information. I usually tell students information on Websites may not be as reliable as those found in a library database because anyone can have a Website. (Example of differences from Yale)
Reserves: Some faculty will put copies of textbooks (Students love this!!), or other supplemental reading in the library, or possibly check out for 3 days. Books borrowed from another OhioLINK library cannot be put on reserve.