New York State Board of Regents
The State Education Department / The University of the State of New York / Albany, NY 12234

Office of Communications / (518) 474-1201

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, SEPTEMBER 13, 2002

For More Information, Contact:
Bill Hirschen or Tom Dunn at (518) 474-1201
Internet: http://www.nysed.gov

Powerful Virtual Library Now Available from Your Home Computer via Your Local Library

For the first time, a new, powerful virtual library is now at the fingertips of every New Yorker.

NOVEL, the New York Online Virtual Electronic Library, gives New Yorkers full computer access to:

• Thousands of national and international newspapers and magazines,
• Health and medical magazines and other resources,
• Valuable business and investment information, and
• Fun and educational material for adults and youngsters -
• All for free via their local library.

The most important feature of NOVEL: Most of the resources available through this service are costly and either not otherwise available on the internet or else require payment of a substantial fee by the consumer.

Many New Yorkers can access all this 24 hours a day from their home computer, simply by logging on to their local library's web site and entering their library card number.

More than 3,600 public libraries statewide are plugged into this service, including almost 2,200 school libraries. Hundreds more school libraries are waiting to be provided the service. A total of 1,500 libraries allow users to access the service from their homes or offices.

The service is provided by the Board of Regents through the New York State Library and the State Education Department using temporary federal funds. Paying for this on a statewide basis saves the public lots of money. If every library paid for this separately, it would cost 35 times as much.

Here are some important features:

• You can search the vast information available by entering specific subjects to pull out articles that you want to read.
• You get full text of magazines and journals free of charge.
• While the average elementary school library has subscriptions to only 20 children's magazines, NOVEL includes more than 300 children's magazines in one database alone, all of which can be read in full text.
• There is no commercial advertising of any kind.
• Encyclopedias, reference books, magazines, journals, investment reports and other sources that are either not available on the internet or normally available for a fee are totally free of charge through NOVEL.

However, the resources available are not yet as extensive as they can and should be. The initial funding for NOVEL is $2 million annually in temporary federal funds.

"Information means opportunity in this society. It is the currency of our economy and provides the path to a better life," said Regents Chancellor Robert M. Bennett. "Library use is up nearly 20% statewide over the previous year as New Yorkers look to their libraries for the information they need for work, school, and business. NOVEL insures that almost every New Yorker in every community has the same access to that vital information."

"This is not the regular internet, where you often find a chaotic jumble of unreliable and out-dated information," said Commissioner Richard Mills. "NOVEL provides access to otherwise hard-to-get information that is organized, reliable, up-to-date, and evaluated by expert librarians. It is free-of-charge to the user and accessible by New Yorkers in any community - regardless of geographic, economic, or physical barriers. This is a level playing field of quality information."

"NOVEL is the culmination of the efforts of libraries and library systems across the state working in partnership with the New York State Library to deliver 21st century library services to New Yorkers," said State Librarian Janet M. Welch. "We are very pleased that the Regents have taken the long view and are committed to securing the resources needed to make NOVEL the information powerhouse that New Yorkers deserve."

Because of a lack of State funding, New York is behind 37 other states including Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, California, and Maryland in providing this free statewide digital or virtual library service.

NOVEL was one of the recommendations made by the Regents Commission on Library Services. Released in 2000, the Commission's report provides a blueprint for delivering 21st century library services to New Yorkers.

State support for NOVEL is part of New Century Libraries, the Regents initiative to provide more state funding for libraries of all types. New Century Libraries would provide $105 million for New York's libraries, including $14 million for NOVEL.

New Century Libraries would expand NOVEL with:

• 24x7 statewide reference services staffed by librarians.
• Thousands of additional resources on history, law, science, statistics, and other subjects
• Expanded remote access so that thousands more New Yorkers could access NOVEL from home, school, and office.
• Software to enable users to search all of NOVEL's databases and catalogs at once.
• More computers in public libraries to meet the needs of ever increasing user waiting lists.

The initiative would also provide support for need-based aid to libraries in high-need areas, more state aid to urban libraries, public library renovation and modernization, and more. New Century Libraries is now a bill sponsored by Senator Hugh Farley and Assemblywoman Matusow and is currently before the Governor and the Legislature.

Collections for NOVEL are selected by a 20 member group of representatives from all types of libraries and all regions of the state. NOVEL currently features over 250 databases, or giant collections of Information Age materials. These include:

• over 2000 full text magazines and journals in business, health, and children's interests.
• Over 80 newspapers and wire services
• Up to date information on over 300,000 businesses
• More than 200 health related magazines and journals
• Selected articles from 1500 general interest magazines
• Extensive almanac and encyclopedia resources
• More than 50 children's magazines appropriate for elementary schools and children's reading rooms
• Over 770 general reference, business, consumer health, general science, humanities, and multi-cultural magazines.
• Indexing and abstracts for 2,290 magazines and journals.

NOVEL is available via more than 3600 subscribing libraries statewide. Users can access it at their local library, or from remote locations using their library card.

NOVEL was created out of EmpireLink, a federally funded pilot project and is currently supported with temporary federal funds. Library users may still find NOVEL referred to as EmpireLink on their local library's home page.