The annual gathering of the NYSHEI membership is set for June 7, 2011 at Iona College in New Rochelle.

Attendance is offered to all library staff of NYSHEI member insitutions and includes lunch and refreshments.

The theme of the day, “Driving Change” brings a focus to NYSHEI’s efforts to better connect academic and research libraries to policy making, the state economy, and our greater community.  Please join us to hear from experts in technology based economic development, advocacy, marketing, and the important role of higher education in innovation as well as scholarship.

Register online today.

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The New York State Higher Education Initiative is committed to the development of an information infrastructure that secures access to information resources for all New Yorkers.

While our efforts focus on those information resources needed for higher education, research, economic and workforce development in New York State, stand with the broader library community in asking Governor Cuomo and the state legislature to reject any cuts in state aid to libraries .

Library Aid has already been cut five times in the last three year for a total reduction of 18 percent.  The proposed 2011-2011 executive budget would again  reduce funding for libraries, dropping total state support to their lowest level since 1994.

The severity of these cuts is extraordinary, and disproportionate to the budget crisis and detrimental to the immense value provided by libraries.  Therefore, in solidarity with our colleagues in the greater library community, academic and research librarians oppose the proposed cuts and seek their rejection.

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After shepherding the process among a coalition of more than 20 groups, NYSHEI today sent a letter to the New York State Regents Advisory Council on Libraries.  The letter asks the Regents Advisory Council (RAC) to recognize and act on the importance of academic and research libraries.

“This unified stand is the result of broad collaboration.  We all represent very different groups with – often – very different missions.  However, because each of us is committed to the practice of collaboration we are able to act with one voice on matters of common interest,” said NYSHEI Executive Director Jason Kramer.

Developed at the second annual summit of organizations for academic and research libraries and librarians, the letter secured the support of the groups who felt they could legally and ethically take a public stand.

The full text of the letter is below.

As the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries takes the initial steps towards developing foundational recommendations of what may become the Board of Regents statewide policy on libraries, we, the undersigned, on behalf of our organizations, urge you to be mindful of the immense contributions, vitality, and importance of New York’s academic and research libraries.

The July 2000 final report of the Regents Commission on Library Services made ten specific recommendations, only one of which mentioned academic and research libraries.  We believe that a singular recommendation, which held at the fore a call to promote access to these libraries rather than enhance support for them, understates both the value and needs of academic and research libraries.

The electronic and information revolution that is reshaping our world casts these libraries – both public and private – into the necessary role of serving as the information infrastructure that will maintain innovation, research, and discovery in the twenty-first century.  Needed economic growth and sustenance of a skilled workforce will have its roots in the information resources of these libraries.

In the weeks and months ahead we will individually and collectively share data and proposals that illustrate the dynamism of academic libraries.  Our hope is that the Regents Advisory Council will join us in working for improvements to empower our libraries to better serve our state and community.  Similarly we offer ourselves to answer any questions or provide any background information that would aid the efforts of the Regents Advisory Council.

Thank you for your consideration.  We look forward to collaborating to ensure that the next Regents statewide policy on libraries better reflects the worth and contributions of academic and research libraries.

Respectfully,

Carrie Marten, President, Association of College and Research Libraries – New York Chapter

Elaine Lasda Bergman, Vice President, Academic and Special Libraries Section, NYLA

Bart Harloe, Director, ConnectNY

Pamela R. Gillespie, Chair, CUNY Council of Chief Librarians

Francesca Livermore, President, Eastern New York Chapter, ACRL

Edwin Rivenburgh, Executive Director, IDS Project

Tracy Thompson-Przylucki, Executive Director, New England Law Library Consortium

John Shaloiko, New York 3Rs Association

Marcia Eggleston, President, New York Library Association

Charling Fagan, Chair, NYS Higher Education Initiative

Maryruth Glogowski, Chair, SUNY Council of Library Directors

Angela Weiler, President, SUNY Librarians Association

Amelia Birdsall, President, Upstate New York Special Libraries Association

David Nichols, President, WALDO

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NYSHEI Executive Director Jason Kramer has an article in the recent edition of the Journal of Collaborative Librarianship.  Titled, “Nontraditional Partnerships in Pursuit of the Information Infrastructure,” the article describes NYSHEI’s evolvution as an advocacy organization.

The Journal is sponsored by the Colorado Academic Library Consortium, the Colorado Library Consortium, the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, Regis University, and University of Denver.

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If you have seen any of my presentations over the past eight months, or have otherwise been forced to listen to my opinions, you will have invariably heard me fret about a “higher education bubble.”  Part of my concern is the state and federal budget situations and the overall state and national economy.  In short, I have argued that 1) things are bad, 2) things will likely get worse, 3) things could get much worse, and 4) we are not experiencing a normal problem, but a fundamental realignment of economic and budgetary realities.

With that in mind, here is a link to a recent column by Cornell University President David Skorton on the subject.

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A searchable bibliographic database of library value and ROI literature is now freely available.

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At the October meeting of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Bruce Kingma of Syracuse University and Paula Kauffman of the University of Illinois presented on the Lib-Value study that will include five NYSHEI member institutions.

The opportunity for our libraries to participate was made possible through the efforts of David Penniman of Nylink.

NYSHEI expects that the study will provide valuable information about the true value of academic and research libraries, to their host campuses, their community and region, and state.  The inclusion of five NYSHEI member libraries will help make the survey results more persuasive to state policy makers.

Proceedings of the ARL meeting are available here.  Click here for Kingma’s presentation and here for Kaufman’s presentation.

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The NYSHEI website is about to change.  Missing from the new site are a few “stock-photo” images for the homepage.

If you have a suggestion, or a great image of your library, for the banner of the NYSHEI homepage please send them to nyshei@nyshei.org.

Specifically, we are looking for pictures that convey both “library” and high-tech research, communications, discovery, and information.  Sometime that illustrates both the vitality of the modern library as an information utility and the heritage of libraries.

Thank you.

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ACRL announces the publication of 2009 Academic Library Trends and Statistics, the latest in a series of annual publications that describe the collections, staffing, expenditures and service activities of academic libraries in all Carnegie classifications. The three-volume set includes associate of arts institutions, master’s colleges and universities/baccalaureate colleges and research/doctoral-granting institutions. The individual volumes for associates colleges, masters/baccalaureate and doctoral-granting institutions are also available for purchase.

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The NYSHEI Board with the Nylink Advisory Board, SUNY Council of Library Directors, CUNY Council of Chief Librarians, will be hosting an informal get-together during the NYLA conference to recognize the excellent work that Nylink has performed on behalf of libraries across the state for the past 40 years.  Librarians from all Nylink member libraries are invited to attend.  This will be a great opportunity to express your thanks and appreciation in a casual and relaxed setting.   No speeches, no fanfare, just a comfortable hour of finger food and conversation with current and former Nylink staff.  (Cash bar.)

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