New Century Libraries and Education Technology Act of 2007
Memorandum in Support
A.3405 (Pretlow)
April 26, 2007
NYSHEI, the advocacy voice of the public and private academic and research libraries of New York State, supports the enactment of Assembly Bill 3405, the New Century Libraries and Education Technology Act of 2007.
NYSHEI is a firm supporter of any legislation that will promote universal access to information and recognize the leadership of all libraries in this noble endeavor. As such, A.3405 is a commendable bill, but falls short of its stated goal.
We assert that there are three opportunities to improve this legislation.
As currently written, A.3405 does not go far enough in recognizing the critical importance of academic and research libraries to the state’s information infrastructure.
Coordinated collection development funding, as established in §5, provides a base of $4,620 for each academic and research library, supplemented by an FTE-driven formula and provided the library is a member of a 3R’s system. While gratefully accepted, these funds represent only token support for these libraries. For context, NCES data shows that New York’s academic and research libraries spent over $225 million on collection development in 2004.
If New York chooses to support and maintain a competitive system of public and private higher education collection development funding must be dramatically increased.
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While specifically supporting many laudable institutions and initiatives, we believe that A.3405 does not adequately address the economies of scale that can result from the aggregation of limited resources.
States that are recognized competitors of New York, such as New Jersey and Ohio, as well as states perceived to be at a competitive disadvantage to New York, such as Alabama and Georgia, have all taken significant leaps beyond the Empire State in providing broad access to library resources.
NYSHEI cautions that continued segmentation of funding to institutions, systems, or programs will not allow New York to substantively advance toward the goal of providing more access to more information to more people. NYSHEI asserts that a segmented approach is not only unproductive, but also economically inefficient.
NYSHEI strongly supports the creation of the New York Online Virtual Electronic Library (NOVEL). However, A.3405 does not address the academic content needs of NOVEL.
Usage statistics clearly demonstrate that campuses are the greatest users of NOVEL. Unfortunately, NOVEL is not yet capable of delivering the cutting edge, peer-reviewed journals that drive research.
The $5 million A.3405 dedicates to statewide licensing of full-text materials and databases is a fraction of the actual amount needed to provide access to essential science, technological and medical research.
NYSHEI supports A.3405 and urges its immediate passage while appealing for legislative improvements that would provide the qualitative support academic and research libraries demand in an information age.