Now, more than ever, your constituents are using library services.

LSTA funds help ensure that New Yorkers have what it takes to compete and succeed in today’s economy.

What Does the LSTA Program Mean for New York?

The Federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) program provides federal funds that help support local libraries throughout New York State. Through statewide services and grants from the New York State Library, the program encourages the blending of local, state, and federal resources to build and enhance library services for all New Yorkers.

Give Your Constituents’ Libraries Their Fair Share of Funding through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Program

Support increased funding for LSTA

• Library use in New York is up dramatically.
• New Yorkers benefited from $9 million in federal funding to libraries through the LSTA program in 2010.
• Employment information services, family reading programs, and access to high-quality electronic resources are among the vital library services these funds support.
• Although Federal funds represent less than one percent of library expenditures in New York State, their impact is great, as they leverage state and local funds and fuel innovation.

New York State Library
The State Education Department

The LSTA program helps provide these services to New York’s library users in their communities:

• Job and consumer health information.
• Access to timely, accurate online information that is not available free on the Internet.
• Access from home, school, or office to full-text electronic information updated and maintained by librarians.
• Training in new computer technology.
• Literacy programs for adults and families.
• Marketing, demographic, and other information crucial to small businesses.

The New York State Library distributes LSTA funds through grants and statewide services that support library programs to New York’s 7,000 libraries, 73 library systems, and the New York State Library:

• Programs that enable libraries to provide high-quality computer and Internet services to their communities.
• Projects that provide equitable access to technology by supporting cooperative efforts among New York’s 7,000 libraries, 73 library systems, and the New York State Library.
• Projects that provide special services that contribute to better access to information for all community residents, such as adult and family literacy programs.

LSTA funds help New Yorkers in densely populated urban centers, sparsely populated rural regions, and ethnically and economically diverse communities through these services:

• Counseling and job information for individuals moving from welfare to work.
• Programs to help at-risk preschoolers develop literacy skills.
• Promotion of literacy in family environments.
• Training for entrepreneurs in the skills needed to research and develop their plans for small businesses.

The LSTA program supports the Statewide Summer Reading Program that helps children develop a love for reading and maintain reading skills learned during the school year.

• Research shows that library summer reading programs raise student achievement and test scores and help prevent learning losses over the summer.
• More than any other public institution, including schools, public libraries contribute to the intellectual growth of children from diverse backgrounds during the summer. 
• More than 1.5 million children and teens from throughout New York State participated in the 2010 Statewide Summer Reading Program.

NOVELNY, the pilot project for New York's first Statewide Internet Library, helps bridge the digital divide and supports New York’s continued leadership in the information economy:

• Statewide access to online information: major collections of commercial databases such as Gale's OneFile, Business & Company Resource Center, InfoTrac Custom Newspapers (full text of over 50 newspapers, including New York State newspapers such as The New York Times), and age-appropriate electronic resources for K-12 students, including the Grolier Encyclopedia.
• Provision of $35 in resources for every $1 of LSTA funding through statewide purchasing of electronic information now available through more than 5,000 subscribing libraries.

For more information on LSTA funding and New York State, visit these websites:

New York State Library
www.nysl.nysed.gov

LSTA funding
www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/lsta/

Or contact:

Bernard A. Margolis
State Librarian and Assistant Commissioner for Libraries
Room 10C34
Cultural Education Center
Albany, New York 12230

Phone: (518) 474-5930

Fax: (518) 486-6880

E-mail: bmargolis@mail.nysed.gov

LSTA Funds at Work in New York

• The Brooklyn Public Library conducted a comprehensive community needs assessment to help develop a program plan for a mobile Internet-enabled bookmobile, "The Bibliobus," to serve the underserved Spanish language populations in Brooklyn. Through their Spanish Language Outreach project, the library visits at least seven locations a week with the bookmobile, which is stocked with over 2,200 Spanish-language books, CDs, and DVDs for patrons of all ages and all reading levels.
• School Librarians as 21st Century Leaders established a collaborative train-the-trainer project among all 41 School Library Systems statewide. Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES School Library System contracted with the American Association of School Librarians to offer twenty-seven institutes over several months to approximately 2,000 school library media specialists. The result was cost-effective training and professional development delivered to school librarians, teachers, reading specialists, library system staff, and school administrators across the State.
• Wii Programming for Older Adults used technology for library programming and interactive gaming in libraries in order to reach special populations in the Mohawk Valley Library System. In addition to working with senior groups within their libraries, library staff made new contacts at ten outreach sites. A workshop on intergenerational gaming programs using teens as volunteer assistants helped sustain the gaming program at many community outlets. Online networking outlets, including the Mohawk Valley Wii webpage were effective advertising for the library gaming program. This project demonstrated how library services, with the help of technology, can successfully interact with multiple target populations.
• Through A New Beginning—Finding the Right Job for You, the Pioneer Library System partnered with community Department of Labor One-Stop Career Centers to bring much needed workforce development services to displaced workers and those with learning and reading disabilities. The customized program provided one-on-one feedback on resumes, letter preparation, and avenues for job search that could be incorporated into active employment applications. The library’s new website was consistently the top five or top six page viewed of the system’s almost 120,000 pages.
• The Southeastern New York Library Resources Council digitized local history records through their project, Hudson Valley Historic Newspapers, using a method and infrastructure that included creating text through optical character recognition, linked image files, metadata and article-level segmentation for full online access. This project leveraged other funds and produced an award-winning cultural history website.
• Building interest and enjoyment of reading as a leisure activity over the summer was a paramount goal throughout the Upper Hudson Library System with the Community Relations Challenge. In addition, the system devised a four-part approach to help libraries build monetary and community support of their programs. This project encouraged and rewarded libraries to develop new community partnerships, which will help those libraries sustain services in challenging economic times.