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

Now, more than ever, New Yorkers are using library services.

group of children

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 New Yorkers Their Fair Share of Funding through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Program

Support funding for LSTA

Library use in New York is up dramatically.
New Yorkers benefited from $8 million in federal funding to libraries through the LSTA program in 2012.
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.

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

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

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.

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 impact 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 1.7 million children and teens from throughout New York State participated in the 2012 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 for all New Yorkers to online information: major collections of commercial databases such as Gale's OneFile, Business Insights: Essentials, InfoTrac Newsstand (including New York State newspapers such as The New York Times), Health Reference Center Academic, and age-appropriate electronic resources for K-12 students, including the Grolier Encyclopedia in English and Spanish.
Provision of a minimum of $35 in resources for every $1 of LSTA funding through statewide purchase of electronic information, now freely available through more than 5,600 libraries.

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

New York State Library

LSTA funding

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

boy at computer

man and woman at laptop computers

LSTA Funds at Work in New York

Brooklyn Public Library launched the Virtual Reference Enhancement Project with the goals of meeting the public’s growing demand for e-mail and chat reference services and increasing the number of librarians with the knowledge and skills to address this need. The Library conducted 44 virtual reference trainings on chat reference protocol for 106 librarians from 35 branches, and added new virtual reference access points on the Library’s website and Facebook page.
Through Small Libraries Mean Business, 33 rural member libraries in the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System collaborated with the North Country Small Business Development Center for the purpose of helping their member libraries learn to respond effectively to business demands from small business owners, non-profit organizations, government entities, and the general public.
The quality of training provided by experts in the field of digitization allowed participants in Long Island Memories to develop projects, scan, and create metadata that made historical materials available to researchers, students, teachers and the general public throughout the world. Forty-five libraries, historical societies and local government organizations — as well as one school library — collaborated with the Long Island Library Resources Council on the project. A total of 45,927 records were digitized, including art, books, newspapers, journals, oral histories, postcards, a scrap book and manuscripts.
Job seekers throughout Nassau County received critical support, guidance and job search skills in the familiar setting of the public library through participation in the Nassau Library System’s project Career Connections. Approximately 1,800 people participated in 90 job club sessions. The project succeeded in its goal to deepen relationships between public libraries and community agencies that assist underserved job seekers, and the System developed invaluable relationships with both HempsteadWorks and The Workforce Partnership.
The New York City School Library System developed a Digital Citizenship Curriculum, with supporting instructional media, for students in grades 1-12. Lesson plans are aligned with Common Core Learning Standards, as well as the New York City Information Fluency Continuum Priority Benchmark Skills. The target population included 1.1 million students living in poverty without the benefit of computers or connectivity in the home. The project helped students and school librarians to use digital resources constructively and creatively within the classroom, guiding students to navigate in a global digital culture and to contribute to this environment in a responsible way.
Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES School Library System collaborated with the Genesee Valley, Monroe 1, and Monroe 2-Orleans School Library Systems on School Librarians as Instructional Leaders. Through professional development, school librarians were provided with the tools necessary to actively engage in preparing students for success on statewide assessments. As a result, librarians built partnerships with school and district administrators and curriculum staff — clearly demonstrating the collaborative role librarians play in ensuring student achievement.

This document is available in .PDF format [288k]

Last Updated: April 23, 2013 -- asm

Library Development