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08/07/2025 – Communication to faculty regarding loss of INSPIRE access (2025)
To: Teaching Faculty
Due to funding cuts to the INSPIRE program in June, all Indiana residents have lost access to a wide range of academic databases. You can see a list of complete cuts here. Since then, libraries in Indiana higher ed have lobbied legislators, negotiated with primary vendor EBSCO, and attempted to restore access. Unfortunately, these efforts have all failed and access to INSPIRE databases was officially cut off on August 1st. Here at GC, this means we have lost access to sources that account for about 10% - 15% of our total database usage. Our most significantly impacted databases are:
Academic Search Complete [We are now downgraded to Academic Search Elite]
Business Source Complete [We are now downgraded to Business Source Elite]
MEDLINE with Full Text [Cut entirely]
Social Sciences Full Text [Cut entirely]
Professional Development Collection [Cut entirely]
So what does this mean for you, our faculty? Right NOW, you should check your Moodle links to your classroom materials! Aside from being good practice anyway, there is a higher chance this year that links to materials in databases may no longer work. If you still have links in Moodle to outside resources, the best practices set by GC state that all articles should be uploaded to Moodle as readable PDFs.
If you find that your links to materials no longer work, please email us at library@goshen.edu, and we will locate the resource for you. In some cases, we may be able to purchase the material before school starts.
What is the future of INSPIRE?
We’re not entirely sure; the Indiana State Library has been harshly impacted due to budget cuts, and has lost around 30% of its workforce and many grants that it has relied on. At present, it has managed to secure access to about half of the INSPIRE databases until June of 2026. After this date, the program is slated to go away entirely. What happens next is still up in the air. Library organizations are looking to broker deals with EBSCO (with little success to date) and are also looking to EBSCO's competitors. Lobbying efforts and grant funding are also currently in the works. It could be that funding is restored and most of these resources come back to us, but we just shouldn't count on that being our reality. Here at the Good Library we are formulating a path forward and are aiming to have a set plan by early January. We will be reaching out to you to ask about your database and ebook usage to ensure that students will have access to your preferred materials or a reasonable alternative.
Thank you for working with us as we work to ensure that our students have access to the materials they need despite the loss of this valuable resource.
