NYSHEI News

Faced with falling budgets and dim prospects for improvement on the horizon, the collected library consortia of ICOLC made a few observations worth recording.

First, the groups at ICOLC strongly believe consortial action is important to maintain.  This may be somewhat self-serving, but it appears true nonetheless.   Anecdotes of attempted “divide and conquer” tactics from publishers are commonplace.  The ICOLCers recognize that an individual library may gain a short term advantage by breaking from a consortium, but assert that such actions result in real and lasting damage to a consortia’s negotiating power.

Second, the libraries least adversely affected by the current budget crisis are not necessarily those libraries in the most fiscally sound states.  Rather, libraries and library consortia with long standing relationships with elected officials seem to be faring the best.

Finally, the ICOLC conference is teaching that simply trying to hold down costs is not good enough.  Libraries need to look for ways to gain access to new revenue sources.

The ICOLC conference is clearly demonstrating the value of NYSHEI.  Not only is NYSHEI membership among the largest of any consortia for academic and research libraries, but NYSHEI is also building relationships with policy makers and doing so in the pursuit of new state support of library resources and operations.

The Wall Street Journal reviews a new book on plagiarism.

In surveys, nearly 70% of college students admit to having taken material from the Internet without properly crediting its source. Ms. Blum comes not to scold these miscreants but to understand their motives. “If more than half of all students plagiarize,” she reasons, “then there is clearly some cultural influence urging them to do so.” Universities have tried everything from detective software to the threat of expulsion to combat the problem, with little success.

The International Coalition of Library Consortia is meeting in Charlottesville, Virginia.  The hot topic is worldwide budget crisis.  Gathered here groups from Japan to Norway, including NYSHEI, are sharing strategies to protect library budgets, obtain better pricing options from publishers and generally support libraries.

NYSHEI Executive Director Jason Kramer offered remarks to the plenary session on the economic crisis to the assembly, stressing NYSHEI’s efforts to maintain a broad coalition and advance the concern of academic and research libraries among public decision makers.

Commentary and musings from the ICOLC conference will follow in subsequent posts.