NYSHEI News

Lynne King, the Director of Library Services at Schenectady County Community College, testified on behalf of NYSHEI before a hearing of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education.

Convened by Assembly Member Deborah Glick (D-Manhattan), Chair of the Committee and Member of the Commission on Higher Education, the hearing took up a review of the Commissions preliminary draft report.

Speaking in support of ARIA and the Commission’s initial endorsement of our proposal, Ms. King joined a score of other advocates, including several university presidents, at the hearing.

Ms. King testified, “The digital knowledge network that ARIA would create builds on an existing collaboration of the state’s public and private academic and research libraries. This is an extensive infrastructure in which even libraries at small campuses such as my own play a vital part. For example, my library shares information from our collections that support specialized fields in our curriculum such as fire science, nanoscale materials technology, and aviation. These materials are supplied to other New York academic and research libraries that need material not covered in their own collections. Most people are surprised to learn that Begley Library at SCCC is actually a net lender, providing more items to other campuses than we borrow each year.

But while there are ways that a small library such as ours can contribute to the community of New York academic and research libraries, there are areas in which we lag far behind because of our small size and small budget. The annual cost to license many of the online information resources appropriate to the academic programs at SCCC are well beyond our means. For example, we could spend close to half of our online budget on access to just one legal database for one of our programs, our Paralegal degree, but instead only one user at a time can access the database from a library computer in order to afford that resource for our students. ”

Ms. King’s efforts on behalf of all NYSHEI institutions maintains our growing momentum, and keeps ARIA on the minds of important decision-makers. Ms. King’s full testimony is available here.

The New York Academy of Medicine has joined NYSHEI as an associate member.

“NYAM is an institution of national renown. I am thrilled they have decided to join our growing NYSHEI family. Personal thanks are owed to Library Director Janice Kaplan for contributing the reputation and prestige of the Academy to NYSHEI. Like each new membership, Ms. Kaplan’s decision to join advances the goals of all NYSHEI institutions,” said NYSHEI Executive Director Jason Kramer

In January of 1847, The New York Academy of Medicine Library was founded with the gift of a three-volume set of Medical and Physiological Commentaries, by Dr. Martyn Paine (founder of the Medical College of the University of New York City). By the time the Library opened its doors to the public for the first time in October of 1878, the collection had grown to contain over 6,000 volumes and numerous journal titles, and was already well on its way to becoming one of the foremost private medical collections in the United States. The Library enjoyed its most dramatic growth spurt during the last part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, increasing its collection largely through personal and institutional gifts including the collections of the Medical Journal Association, New York Hospital Library and the medical books of the New York Public Library.

Also noted for its rich historical and rare book collections, the Historical Collections of The New York Academy of Medicine were established in 1928 when the Academy purchased the Edward Clarke Streeter Collection, considered one of the finest private rare medical libraries in the world. This collection of 1,200 volumes provided the core of the rare book collection.

By the 1950′s, the Academy had established itself as the public medical library for New York City.

From 1969 through 2006, the Academy Library entered a long-standing relationship under contract with the National Library of Medicine as the Regional Medical Library (RML) for the Middle Atlantic Region of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine.

In 1996, the RML became the headquarters for the National Online Training Center, having served as the Eastern Regional Training and Information Center since the mid-1980′s. The National Online Training Center continues to provides training programs in online literature searching for librarians and health professionals at sites throughout the United States.

In an effort to preserve its resources for future generations, the Library operates its own on-site book and paper conservation laboratory. Officially instituted in 1985, the Gladys Brooks Book and Paper Conservation Laboratory is a state-of-the-art facility which employs techniques as new as ultrasound and as old as pulp-making to keep fragile historical materials intact. Taking its role as cultural custodian seriously, the Academy Library supports an active program of courses and workshops for many local library consortia and schools of library science. Here the book conservators share not only their technical knowledge, but also the importance of preservation for all library collections.

Today, The New York Academy of Medicine Library houses the second largest medical collection open to the general public in the United States, following that of the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, MD. The main collection consists of over 750,000 volumes, more than 400 current journal subscriptions, and a variety of electronic resources. The cornerstone of the Library’s Historical Collections is the Malloch Rare Book Room, which contains about 35,000 rare and important books, manuscripts, archives and artifacts documenting the history of medicine, science and other health-related disciplines (about 32,000 of these date from 1700 BC to 1800 AD). These materials are supplemented by an in-depth collection of secondary resources. All in all, if you were to put all of the Library’s materials side by side they would stretch for over 14 miles! And all of this is available for use as part of the Academy’s commitment to enhancing the health of the public.

In addition to providing access to its collections, the Library continues to seek new ways to offer and enhance the services that it provides to a growing variety of users, and continues to play a vital role in the health care community of New York.

Utica College is an independent, comprehensive institution that enrolls 2,429 full- and part-time undergraduate students, and 523 full- and part-time graduate students. The College offers 32 undergraduate degrees, 13 master’s degrees and 2 doctoral degrees. Utica College is located in Utica, N.Y., 50 miles east of Syracuse and 90 miles west of Albany.

The Utica College Frank E. Gannett Memorial Library provides a physical and virtual focal point for learning, teaching, and research. Our collection includes nearly 200,000 volumes, 1,200 current serial subscriptions, and a microform collection of more than 60,000 units. The physical collection is supplemented by access to over 25,000 electronic journals and more than 90 research databases, allowing students and faculty to conduct scholarly research from any computer with an Internet connection, on or off campus. Fifteen reference computer workstations and sixteen laptops with wireless internet connectivity are available for student use, as well as networked print stations, photocopiers, flatbed scanners, and microform readers. Five group study rooms are available to UC students for collaborative academic purposes. The library launched an electronic reserve (e-reserve) service this fall semester, providing students with 24 hour access to journal articles that faculty place on course reserve. Five reference librarians offer personalized one-to-one reference service 65 hours per week and conduct nearly 100 library instruction classes each year. To provide round-the-clock reference services, we have entered into an agreement with the Central New York Library Resources Council (CLRC) for 2008 to participate in the regional virtual reference services project Ask Us 24/7.

The Library’s Jocelyn Romano Candido Rare Book Room features the Harry F. Jackson Welsh Collection, which is the largest 19th and early 20th century Welsh-language literature in the United States. Most of the Welsh Collection was printed by Welsh settlers living within 30 miles of Utica. The Edmonds Room houses the personal library and papers of Walter D. Edmonds, noted author of Drums Along the Mohawk. The Edmonds Room is available for group study. Both of these collections attract national and international visiting scholars.

The Library is open 98 hours per week during the academic year when classes are in session. For more information about the Library’s print or online collections, as well as our services and hours, please visit us on the Web at (http://www.utica.edu/academic/library/).

In the first State of Upstate Address, Governor Spitzer again stressed his theme leveraging the strength of higher education to elevate the state economy. With specific mention of high-end research, business incubators, and community colleges, the Governor set forth a vision that includes plenty of room for the ARIA proposal.

Assembly Member Deborah Glick (D-Manhattan) has announced two Assembly hearings to examine the preliminary report of the New York State Higher Education Commission.

Assembly Member Glick is both a member of the Commission and Chair of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education.

The hearing are scheduled for January 24, 2008 in Albany, and February 8, 2008 in New York. NYSHEI will testify at one or both hearings.