NYSHEI News

This is your chance to help.  New York now has an innovation wiki.  NYSHEI has long argued that innovation is reliant on access to the “information infrastructure” that is the academic and research libraries.  I encourage you to use this wiki to make sure our partners in industry and across higher education are aware of the critical information resources available at your library.

Governor Paterson’s Task Force on Industry-Higher Education Partnerships was commissioned to explore how the State can better integrate its university-based research and development resources into the economy. That Task Force constantly heard of the need for a centralized information source that provides information about “what’s out there in terms of assets.” To that end, we are launching the New York State Innovation Asset Inventory, an open-forum, wiki-based website which includes brief profiles and contact information of many of the state’s most important investment, research and development and business startup assets. The website is www.KnowledgeNY.org/wiki.

ADDING/EDITING ENTRIES

In order to create a new entry, follow the directions on the home page.

In order to edit your individual asset’s page click on the link that will take you to your asset’s page off of the main page.  On the top of the page, just above your asset’s name, is a tab reading “Edit”.  Clicking on this tab will bring you to a screen from which you can edit your asset’s information as it appears on our site.  You may, but need not, create an account (in the event you do not, your computer’s IP address will be logged along with your edits). Formatting tools are available for you to use at the top of this editing screen.

Under the leadership of sponsor and committee chair Senator William Stachowski the Academic Research Information Access (ARIA) act won the unanimous bipartisan support of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Economic Development, and Small Business.

With his staff working diligently to ameliorate concerns left by the 2009 Governor Paterson veto of ARIA, Senator Stachowski (D-Buffalo) again secured great support for ARIA and reported the bill to the Senate Committee on Finance.  The sponsor and his supporters are optimistic that ARIA will again win passage before the full Senate and – this time – be enacted by the Governor.

The Senate version of ARIA is keeping pace with its Assembly companion which recently won unanimous bipartisan support of the Assembly Committee on Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry under the guidance of Assemblyman Robin Schimminger (D-Kenmore).

“ARIA is very fortunate to have such committed boosters as Senator Stachowski and Assemblyman Schimminger.  Both recognize the need for this legislation to promote and advance the innovation economy in New York.  Both are working hard to secure full enactment.  I offer my heartfelt thanks to both men on behalf of the academic and research library community,” said NYSHEI Executive Director Jason Kramer.

A vote on ARIA by the full Assembly and Senate is expected to occur before years end.

Assembly Jonathan Bing (D-Manhattan), Chair of the Assembly Committee on Libraries and Educational Technology has introduced legislation (A.10884) to adjust the formula that sets coordinated collection development aid for academic libraries.

Mr. Bing said, “I am proud to introduce legislation to update the funding formula for state aid to public and private academic research libraries.  The formula has not been adjusted for over 25 years and, during this time, prices of some published materials have outpaced inflation by 300 percent.  This legislation is needed to ensure that our higher education sector is able to stay competitive in a rapidly changing world.”

NYSHEI Executive Director Jason Kramer applauded the action. “NYSHEI is extremely grateful to Mr. Bing for recognizing and addressing this issue.  From the moment of our first conversation on the matter, Mr. Bing showed a clear understanding of the importance – to quality of higher education institutions and to their role in supporting the state economy – of CCDA.  Clearly, he values the academic library community and is committed to doing everything he can to ensure their success.”

Established in the state Education Law, CCDA provides some state support to public and non-profit institutions of higher education in securing valuable information collections in a cost-effective manner.  Driven by a funding formula set in statute in 1984, CCDA has not been updated or indexed to the Consumer Price Index.

“This legislation,” said Kramer “addresses the neglect of a long overlooked CCD aid formula.  During these difficult economic times modernizing aid apportionment is  more important than ever before.  I am thankful for Mr. Bing’s leadership and look forward to working with him towards passage of this bill.”

Assembly bill 10884 would increase the CCDA formula by 25 percent in the first year, and provide for the formula to be indexed to the CPI by 2014.  Currently the total state appropriation toward CCDA is under $2 million for the 270 eligible academic libraries of New York.  In recent years the 1984 formula has been underfunded by state budgets.

It is unusual for a state lobbying effort to gain a passing reference in a book that garnered national attention – especially if that effort is hardly the stuff of political debate and breathless editorials.  But ARIA did it.

In his book on the abbreviated administration of Eliot Spitzer, longtime friend and Spitzer confidante Lloyd Constantine references NYSHEI’s Academic Research Information Access (ARIA) act.  In the book, Journal of the Plague Year: An Insider’s Chronicle of Eliot Spitzer’s Short and Tragic Reign, Constantine writes of his frustration to advance particular policy concerns:

“I thought I was so tricky and smart – inserting promises into the State of the State speech during that chaotic last-minute drafting session, thinking that this would guarantee at least some modest delivery on the rhetoric.  In other areas, however, such as a $15 million promise to the state’s academic libraries, which I stuck into Eliot’s speech, but the budget division veterans ignored.

I also argued directly to Eliot for more funding for public higher education.  He pointed to his State of the State promise to convene a Commission on Higher Education.  The Commission would propose vastly increased funding and how it should be used.  Increased resources for higher education would begin in the 2008-2009 budget.  The next year and the next budget would be the time and place for higher ed. to become a major pillar of New York State’s bright future.”

That Commission, which was managed by Mr. Constantine, would directly recommend ARIA as the “academic library pooling of electronic information,” and that the State “invest $15 million to facilitate college and university libraries moving from individual library licenses to state-wide shared licenses.”

You will find no review of the Plague Year here (but you can read about it from the NY Times and Newsweek among others).  Instead, I only offer the sincere gratitude of NYSHEI to Mr. Constantine for doing every thing he could to adopt our issue and work toward its fulfillment.  Although the end of the Spitzer administration was  – among many other things to many other people – a setback for the ARIA initiative, the life breathed into that proposal by Mr. Constantine laid the foundation for the mounting successes of our advocacy.

New York State Assembly Member Dennis Gabryszak (D-Erie) will speak at the upcoming NYSHEI Annual Meeting.

Mr. Gabryszak chairs the Assembly Task Force on University-Industry Cooperation.  He will offer his thoughts and insights on the role of the state in fostering that collaboration for the benefit of both parties, and reflect on specific proposals, such as ARIA, that will advance the level of cooperation.

The NYSHEI Annual Meeting will be held at Skidmore College on June 7th, 2010.  Register online.