NYSHEI News

In 2005 mankind created 150 exabytes (billion gigabytes) of data.  It is expected that we will create 1,200 exabytes of data in 2010.  In 2008, researchers at the University of California in San Diego found that the average American was bombarded by 34 gigabytes of information every single day.

There can be no question that the sheer volume of information is increasingly exponentially, and will continue to do so every year.  Separating the wheat from the chafe, the knowledge from the noise, will become an equally increasing challenge and necessity.  How do we first cope, than manage, organize, store, retrieve and use this ever vaster flow of information?

The Economist takes on these questions and more in a ten article series on the “data deluge.”  Read this eye-popping and thought-provoking series here.  Be sure to find and click the “next article” tag at the bottom left of each article.

The New England Law Library Consortium is hosting a grant writing workshop at the Albany Law School.

Interested persons should contact NELLCO.

The workshop will take place on March 18 and 19, 2010.

Participants will learn how to write winning proposals including:

• The essential components of a grant proposal package.
• How to customize a proposal to match a grant maker’s interest.
• How to initially approach a funder.
• The differences between government and foundation proposals.
• How to report on a grant’s progress and impact.
• How to develop working relationships with grant makers.
• What to do if your proposal is denied (don’t give up!).
• The behind-the-scenes decisions that determine proposal acceptance and denial.

Participants will also learn how to find and track relevant grant opportunities:

• Where to find foundation grant programs that can help you accomplish your goals.
• Where to find federal and state grant makers that meet your needs.
• Where to find corporate giving programs whose giving goals match your funding needs.
• How to stay on top of your targeted opportunities.

Governor David Paterson announced that the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Center for Automation Technologies and Systems (CATS) and the Stony Brook University Sensor CAT have been re-designated by the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) as Centers for Advanced Technology (CAT). The designation will provide each center with $921,000 in funding annually for up to ten years.

These announcements are meant to demonstrate the Governor’s support for an innovation age economy, said NYSHEI Executive Director Jason Kramer. He remarked, “again New York invests in campus-based research, hoping that it will empower the larger economy. This is our argument for a library based information infrastructure.”

“The investment in these Centers for Advanced Technology at RPI and Stony Brook demonstrates our commitment to strengthening the innovations critical to the New Economy,” said Governor Paterson. “By fostering an environment that encourages research and development, we build on our intellectual capital, support opportunities for jobs creation and confirm New York’s position as a global leader in new technologies.”

The NYSTAR CAT initiative is part of a statewide effort to encourage greater technological and economic collaboration between New York’s innovation industries and research universities. Specifically, a CAT must help increase New York State companies’ competitiveness by solving production, applied research and development, and technical problems.

The RPI CATS research focuses on four automation application areas: manufacturing, precision, design and information automation – serving companies that span key industrial sectors, including manufacturing, energy, biotechnology, semiconductors, aerospace and defense. The Stony Brook University Sensor CAT research ranges from new materials to infrared lasers to signal processing, and is currently strongest in semiconductor opto-electronics, fluorescent detection technology for sensors and imaging; in fiber-based sensors; superconducting electronics for ultra-sensitive applications, and in information processing and software for sensor networks and cyber-security.

NYSTAR Executive Director Edward Reinfurt: “The commitment announced today illustrates Governor Paterson’s confidence in the innovative research being conducted by these Centers for Advanced Technology and the contribution they will make to continue building a stronger and brighter economic future for New York.”

Senator Ken LaValle said: “This designation is a classic case of higher education linking with commerce and industry to create new technologies and economic development opportunities. Expanded research at the Stony Brook University Sensor CAT will continue to introduce cutting edge programs to our region, creating new high-tech jobs here on Long Island.”

Senator Roy McDonald said: “Today’s announcement is just the latest example of how Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute continues to be a leader in the higher education community when it comes to the direction and future of technological research and development. This funding commitment is an important investment in our economy and signifies the important role that RPI plays in creating the technologies of tomorrow.”

Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari said: “The Troy and the greater Capital District have benefited from the presence of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Research carried out by faculty and students is among the most advanced in the nation. I am very pleased that New York acknowledges RPI’s incredible value and over the next decade will make this important CAT investment in the campus. I thank Governor Paterson for his commitment to keeping our region at the forefront of technological research and development.”

Assemblyman Steven Englebright said: “I am pleased with the re-designation of the Stony Brook University Sensor Research and Development CAT by NYSTAR. Although annual funding for this CAT has been reduced by $60,000 to $921,000, the Governor has committed to funding the program for another 10 years at this level. The extraordinary innovation and cutting-edge technology advances this Center has brought to New York State has significantly multiplied the modest State investment.”

RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson said: “The frontiers of manufacturing technology and automation have never been more promising than they are today, and the faculty and student researchers at Rensselaer have proven time and again to be a wellspring of innovation in this field. The new 10-year commitment by New York State to support the Rensselaer CATS is an investment that will continue to flow innovation from our laboratories to businesses across the State, yielding the critical dividends of corporate recruitment, job creation, and job retention.”

President of Stony Brook University Dr. Samuel Stanley said: “The Sensor CAT has been an important intellectual and economic asset to New Yorkers, paying for itself many times over, generating numerous inventions, and growing exponentially in economic impact. Its renewal is enormously important because this work must continue.”

NYSHEI Director Jason Kramer said, “now we need the Academic Research Information Access (ARIA) act to truly leverage this public investment, and the work of all higher education and research institutions. Without ARIA, we are limiting our potential for success.”

The CAT program was established in 1983 to spur technology-based applied research and economic development and to encourage research collaboration and innovation with industry across New York. Initially five centers received CAT designations. Since that time the program has been expanded to included 15 different centers throughout the State.

Library Protesters to Ohio State U.: Digital’s OK, but Save Our Books!

About two dozen faculty members and students, clutching signs that read “Don’t Gut the Library” and “Keep our books on campus,” picketed the administration building at Ohio State University yesterday, The Columbus Dispatch and the Associated Press reported. The protesters were upset over the culling of printed materials—275,000 books and other works, they said—from the university’s libraries between 2005 and 2008. Another 55,000 items have been discarded in the past four months, according to the picketers.

“What people here are concerned about is the idea of a research collection, much of which will never be digitalized,” John Burnham, a professor of history and one of the protesters, told The Chronicle in an e-mail message. He said that researchers in disciplines like African studies “are particularly concerned” that the materials they work with will not be available in digital form.

“It’s true that a great deal has been opened up online and more will be,” the professor observed. But “the currently faddish business model” means that there is less and less physical space for books, and less opportunity for the kind of scholarly browsing that results in “serendipitous discoveries.”

Will we see other protests, on other campuses, about the streamlining of research-library holdings as the great digital shift accelerates, budgets shrink, and storage space becomes ever tighter? “The factors that led to the protest are those that face any great library now—and the research personnel who use the library,” Mr. Burnham said.

In a telephone interview with The Chronicle, Joe Branin, OSU’s director of libraries, said that the institution remains committed to its print collections. The university’s main library will reopen in August after a three-year renovation, and it will still contain more than a million volumes. But the book depository the university opened two decades ago for library overflow is almost full. The recent culling has targeted duplicate items “so we can make more room for material moving in,” he said.

“There’s a consolidation of print collections around the world. I don’t think that can be changed,” Mr. Branin said. “Keeping large collections is not inexpensive. And we want to keep a large collection, but we want it to be a useful, rational collection, not just whatever has been accumulated over hundreds of years.”

Tight space isn’t the only force at work. Researchers’ behavior is shifting away from print. “All the data that we gather indicate that there’s a growing preference for online digital access to information,” Mr. Branin said. That means, for instance, that it’s no longer economically feasible to maintain separate departmental libraries in journalism, business, theater arts, and social sciences. He understands that “for some faculty and students, that’s very emotionally upsetting.”

Not everything should be in a local collection, he believes. OSU is working with a statewide consortium of libraries to figure out how to make best use of one another’s holdings. “For us as research librarians—and I said this to the protesters yesterday—our goal is to try to preserve the record of scholarship,” he said. “We have to come up with a better system nationally and internationally. There are just so many inefficiencies in the way we’ve been doing it.” —Jennifer Howard

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.