What is BadgerLink?

BadgerLink is 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 this site and through links on many library web pages. Most libraries also provide access to BadgerLink from public access computers within the library.

The Department of Public Instruction currently contracts with five vendors (EBSCO, ProQuest, Thomson Gale, NewspaperARCHIVE, and TeachingBooks) to provide access to articles from thousands of newspaper and periodical titles, image files, and other specialized reference materials and websites. Users can find access to over 11,000 periodical titles and over 700 newspapers (including Wisconsin newspapers), children’s and adult literature, business, medical, and education sources, and many other specialized resources not available through regular internet search engines. BadgerLink also connects users to WISCAT (the online catalog of Wisconsin library holdings) OCLC WorldCat (an international database of library holdings), directories of libraries, access to library digitized collections, and other information.

BadgerLink services began in July 1998. The project is funded through the Universal Service Fund and costs approximately $2 million annually.