Additional Comments Submitted to the Regents Commission on Library Services

Spring 1999 Hearings and Testimony

Janet L. Barr, Ph.D., President, School Library Systems Association of New York State (SLSA)
Richard C. Bell, President, Middletown Thrall Library Board of Trustees
Carolyn A. Clack, Horseheads High School Library
Diane L. Gordon Du Bois
Chris Emery, Rutherford Elementary School
Kevin J. Gallagher, Director, Middletown Thrall Library
Jeffrey M. Garvey, Director of Library Services, Mercy Hospital Library, Watertown
Neerajana Ghosh, Coordinator, New York City School Library System
Carol Kadamus, School Library Media Specialist, Voorheesville CSD
Dr. Martha Leung, Amherst Central High School, and Dr. Eugene Stanwich, Amherst Central Middle School
Susan MacLeod, Director, Resource Center, O'Brien and Gere Engineers, Inc., Syracuse
Elizabeth Naylor-Gutierrez, Librarian, Theodore Roosevelt High School Library, Bronx
New York City School Librarians' Association
New York State Consortium of Consortia
Nylink (formerly the SUNY/OCLC Network)
Richard Panz
Ramapo Catskill Library System, Richard V. Anglin, Director
Judith Schaffner, Librarian, I.S. 218 Washington Heights (Manhattan)
Catharine D. Wolf, Fairport
Norman Zierler, Principal, North Bay School

Statement Submitted by Janet L. Barr, Ph.D., President, School Library Systems Association of New York State (SLSA) to the Regents 1999 Legislative Conference, September 15, 1999

SCHOOL LIBRARY SYSTEMS IN CRISIS

Introduction: School Library Systems were established across the State in 1985 to complete New York State's network of libraries and library systems by providing equitable access to resources for the students, teachers and administrators of all public and non-public schools. Sections 207, 282, 283, and 284 of Education Law relate to School Library Systems. Sections 90.18 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education describe the requirements of School Library Systems.

Requirements from Commissioner's Regulations 90.18.

(d) System staffing. Each school library system shall employ a full-time coordinator of the school library system. School library systems, or combinations thereof, with the enrollment of 200,000 students or more, shall employ at least an additional 0.5 full-time equivalent certified school library media specialist for each additional 100,000 students, or major fraction thereof, to assist the coordinator in designated school library system activities. At least one full-time clerical staff member shall be assigned to each coordinator. Other professional and support staff members shall be employed as necessary to execute school library system functions. The adequacy of the staff in relation to the plan of service activities shall be determined by the commissioner.

Estimated costs below do not include monies for above required staff.

In the 1999-2000 program budgets thirty-nine school library systems have budgeted for professional salaries, support staff salaries, employee benefits and indirect costs from School Library System Operating Aid and Categorical Aid for Automation. Some salaries may also be funded through shared services (cooperative educational services) administered by the School Library System Director. One school library system was not able to provide any program funds after budgeting for professional salaries, support staff salaries, employee benefits and indirect costs. Data was not available for New York City and Yonkers City. There are a total of 42 school library systems.

Estimated costs below for purchased services, supplies, materials, travel and equipment, i.e. program services, do not include those for New York City.

e) Functions of the system coordinator. The school library system coordinator will be responsible for the following aspects of the school library system, including but not limited to:

  1. creation, updating and maintenance of a union catalog in appropriate format; Initial implementation -- Software ($5,000 - $150,000), Hardware ($5,000 - $50,000), Records ($25,000 - $300,000). Additional records per year at $1.00 per record ($1,000 - $40,000)
  2. establishment and use of interlibrary loan procedures, including delivery and policy; Delivery ($1,000 - $10,000)
  3. development and implementation of a cooperative collection development plan; Grants for schools ($1,000 - $20,000)
  4. planning of professional staff development and other continuing education activities Consultants ($500 - $10,000)
  5. ongoing communications with the district liaisons or, in the city school districts, the communications Coordinators, with the school library system council, and with other school or community personnel or agencies; Communication ($200 - $10,000)
  6. development of a specialized collection of selection and verification tools for use by system members; Specialized collection ($200 - $3,000)
  7. planning periodic meetings between the school library system council and district liaisons or communications coordinators in the city school districts; Meetings ($200 - $1,000)
  8. serving as advisor to member school library media centers and districts on program development and improvement and assisting with development and updating of members' plans developed pursuant to paragraph (f) ( 4) of this section; Advising communications and travel ($200 - $1,000)
  9. serving as liaison to appropriate State Education Department offices concerning system and member needs and other matters; Liaison communications and travel ($200 - $4,000)
  10. development of cooperative activities with other school library systems, public library systems and the reference and research library resources system; Cooperative activities communication and travel ($200 - $1,000)
  11. conducting periodic technical assistance visits to members and participants; Technical assistance communication and travel ($200 - $2,000)
  12. planning and conducting procedures for data gathering and reporting; Data gathering communication ($200 - $1,000) and
  13. preparing annually a budget, on forms prescribed by the commissioner, to be approved by the school library system council and governing board, and such budgets shall be filed with the department no later than April 30th of each year for approval and release of State aid in the next school year; Budget copying and delivery ($10 - $20).

TOTALS FOR PROGRAM SERVICES
Minimum estimate $35,110 and Maximum estimate $603,020

1999-2000 Program Budget Statistics Indicate the Following Amounts Available for Purchased Services, Supplies & Materials, Travel, and Equipment:

Less than $10,000 05 School Library Systems
$10,000 - $20,000 14 School Library Systems
$20,000 - $30,000 12 School Library Systems
$30,000 - $40,000 04 School Library Systems
$40,000 - $50,000 02 School Library Systems
$50,000 - $60,000 01 School Library Systems
$60,000 - $70,000 02 School Library Systems
Not reported as of 8/27/99 02 School Library Systems


Thirty-three of the forty reporting School Library Systems have less than $35,110, the minimum estimate of what is needed. This means that 82.5% of School Library Systems do not have sufficient funds to perform the minimum functions required by the Commissioner's Regulations. This is a crisis in serving students, teachers, and administrators in public and non-public schools at a time when a greater variety and amount of library material resources are needed to support the New York State Standards and the national Information Literacy Standards. Access to electronic reference materials, both online and CD-ROM, are becoming increasingly important in student research.

The School Library Systems above range in service population from 12,000 to over 200,000. The six merged systems are included in the program services budgets of over $20,000. Five of the seven systems with less than 20,000 service population, are included in the program services budgets of under $20,000. One of the largest systems has no program services budget. Although there is no easy solution to solve the problem, one thing is very clear - adequate funding for School Library Systems must be provided now.

School Library System directors are aware of the limitations imposed upon them by insufficient funding but they continue to work and plan for equitable access to information for all New York State students. (See attached goals).

It is unfortunate, at this moment in time, when students need to use a greater variety of materials for their research papers and State monies were available, that library systems received no increase in funding. School Library Systems see themselves navigating the information superhighway in poorly maintained subcompacts providing for a few rather than the well maintained sleek limousines that could provide for all students and teachers. I'm sure the latter is what the State intended when they established School Library Systems in 1985. Please acknowledge the critical need for additional funds for School Library Systems and encourage the Governor and Legislature to increase their financial support for these systems.

Thank you for allowing me to submit this testimony. Please contact me with any questions.

Richard C. Bell, President, Middletown Thrall Library Board of Trustees

Recent state action to suspend all fees charged by Librarians to patrons from untaxed areas has had a great affect on the area we serve. As President of the Middletown Thrall Library Board of Trustees I feel compelled to inform you of the situation which we have faced for several years and continue to face today.

In order to fully understand the entire situation it is important to take a moment to review the past history. Middletown Thrall Library is a School District library. As such it is supported by taxes paid by residents of the Middletown School District.

We have always provided service to residents living outside the school district because we are the largest library in the western portion of Orange County. However, after we opened a new building in downtown Middletown, built at taxpayer expense, the use of the library by residents in nearby untaxed areas started to grow. Three years ago we found that fully 35% of our annual circulation was going to area residents who paid no library tax at all. It was at that point that we went to all of the municipalities involved and asked them to sign a contract with us for service to their residents. The effort was a total failure. Basically it boiled down to the town officials saying why should we pay for a service that you are giving us for free. And when it was suggested that we would impose fees on their residents who use the library we were told that this would be an equitable solution in their opinion because the only people who would be paying were the people who would be using the service.

That is were things stood until earlier this year, when the state mandated an end to fees because library service should be "free' to everyone. That brings me to my first point. Library service is not "free" to the people who pay their library taxes every year to support the facility. It is true they can walk into a library and borrow a book and not have to pay anything for the service at that time. But they are paying through their taxes. Using the word free presents problems in dealing with officials and residents from untaxed areas that see no reason why they should have to pay for a free service. And the state says it is free. Of course, the state doesn't offer much in the way to state aid to support the contention that library service should be "free", but that is another story.

As for the untaxed area's around our library, officials at the Ramapo Catkills Library System have successfully obtained an agreement from the Minisink Valley School District to provide service for several communities. While this is a step in the right direction, the per capita income is far below the cost of library service to residents of the Middletown School District. (Residents of the Middletown School District pay about $40 per capita for library service, the Minisink Valley contract is for $10 per capita.)

Negotiations to provide service to residents of the untaxed area of the Town of Wallkill are still continuing. Town officials feel that $10 per person is an "outlandish" price to pay for library service and are legitimately concerned about double taxation in a portion of the town that is also located within the Middletown School District. Creating a special library district cannot be accomplished before the January first service deadline.

What can be done. The state must act....and act immediately....to make sure that every taxable property in the state is included in a library district. Officials at Ramapo Catskill Library System and other systems like it across the state, should be giving the power to revise the service area of all their member libraries to include those sections not now taxed. Only by placing all land in a library district can we achieve an equitable distribution of the costs of providing library service.

If this cannot be done immediately, then some kind of special state supported program is need to recognize those libraries that carry this special burden of providing service to untaxed area. This can be in the way of special state grants to these library based on the amount of service they provide to untaxed patrons. In every case this should be enough state funding to create some kind of balance between what the taxpayers are paying and what the untaxed areas are paying.

I'm not recommending that as a permanent solution. It should be a program that lasts only two or three years. It should carry with it a mandate to see that the untaxed areas are brought into library districts and start paying taxes. It should expire on a given date and any area not in compliance should then lose all library service and privileges.

The next step in this process should be establishing a minimum standard for library service. There are libraries in our area which are really not much more than reading rooms. Patrons of these libraries are entitled in inter-library loan privileges and they proceed to make extensive use of our library facility. Taxpayers in these areas pay far less for service than residents of the Middletown School District, but they are allowed to use the Middletown facility. Any library should be required to provide a minimum quality of service in order to qualify for inter-library loan service. If this is not done you will find some communities, as has been suggested in this area, opening a room with books and a computer with a budget of around $50,000 a year and saying "we have fulfilled our obligations for library service".

Unless steps are taken, the problem will only increase. Every governmental body is looking for ways to cut spending. They seek loopholes to cut costs. Library service is wide-open to become a victim of this trend with some people taking on more and more of the burden of other communities not willing to pay. Despite all of the other activities that vie for attention, the library continues to grow as a place where people go for information and relaxation. Unless steps are taken more communities will start to question why they are paying for people who don't pay, or pay very little, for library service.

Carolyn A. Clack, Horseheads High School Library

I wish to comment on the state of libraries in New York, most particularly on School Library Systems. As a secondary educator for 34 years and a librarian for 20 of those years, I know first hand the value of School Library Systems. The creation of the SLS's brought automation and interlibrary loans to students in school. This would never have happened with out Systems. We are the first library and often the only library that many of our students ever visit. We live in a rural community where many of our students do not even get a newspaper in their homes.

We currently have an AP English project for which we borrowed 31 books on various authors. Without the system we could not do this.

Currently, we receive Electric Library online thru the SLS. This is made possible as a result of Electronic Doorway Library money. Between Sept. 1998 and April 30, 1999, our students queried Electric Library 5592 times and retrieved 9049 articles. They were on line for a total of 452 hours. We have 1500 students in our school. Without this program, our students will have their choices severely limited. NO money was allocated for this for next year. The ability of the System to negotiate with vendors has proved to be an incredible benefit. But there must be money to spend.

It is also important that elementary libraries have full time librarians. As standards increase, librarians are necessary to insure that students are being matched with appropriate materials for their grade and reading level. Just saying there are books available is not enough. The books must meet the needs and ability levels of students. Matching students to books is a prime function of librarians. When our school district did not have full time elementary librarians, circulation dropped dramatically in our elementary schools. Parents complained that their children were bringing home books inappropriate to their reading level. The evidence for the improvement of reading scores being related to the existence of librarians in elementary schools is clear. If we want achievement, this is one way to encourage it.

I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with you. As a participant in the process used for the King study years ago, I am very interested in the results of this process. It would be nice of some of the hearings could be in the Southern Tier instead of only along the Thruway. This might be a consideration for future hearings.

Thank you.

Diane L. Gordon Du Bois, Tribes Hill

We need New York State to mandate the presence of a certified School Library Media Specialist in every school library -- elementary, middle, and secondary -- in the state. Currently, the lack of such a mandate at the elementary level encourages school boards, whose primary concern all too often is the "bottom line," to view library programs and professional personnel as "expendable."

A few years ago, as part of an attempt to make up several years' worth of debt, the Board of Education in the district in which I work eliminated all elementary librarians. Our elementary libraries are now being run by teaching assistants who are expected, with no professional supervision, to deal with the needs of students and faculty, handle all details of library administration, and select, and at times classify and catalog, all new materials.

This situation is patently absurd, and totally unfair, both to students and faculty and to the TA's themselves, who are expected to perform professional duties which ought never to have been given them. Yet such an arrangement is "legal" in New York State. At the same time, the new New York State standards in all academic areas place more emphasis than ever before upon the development of information literacy, the components of which are skills best fostered initially at the elementary level by the school's information and literature specialist -- the School Library Media Specialist.

Regardless of how technologically advanced our libraries may become, the need for the certified School Library Media Specialist will in no way be diminished; indeed, as information sources and literature formats become ever more sophisticated, and as academic standards and expectations continue to rise, this need will become more and more pronounced. A concerted effort by all concerned is needed to convince the state legislature to act in order to correct the current grievous situation.

Chris Emery, Rutherford Elementary School
(submitted via e-mail)

Just when I was able to get kids excited about using the Internet as a learning tool, I was told to cut down my use because AT&T considers school libraries as businesses. Each email has an additional 8 cents a minute charge. So much for showing an excited group of fourth graders a live cam shot of a killer whale as they are studying whales.

Flex scheduling is another way to encourage teachers and students to use the library as a tool rather than a break period.

State Certification for elementary school libraries would also increase reading scores and motivate our beginning readers to learn how to develop the love of reading especially when reading meets a need or is done for a purpose.

We need researchers who dig for answers...not passive listeners.

Thank You.

Kevin J. Gallagher, Director, Middletown Thrall Library

There are a number of issues that I believe the Regents Commission should be considering, and recommending action or changes. The first is the statewide problem of untaxed, unserved areas. This is a problem that has existed for many years, and only recently, with the changes to Commissioner's Regulation 90.3, is it a problem that has received much attention. The changes to the regulations are helpful, and in western Orange County have already resulted in one contract for library services between a school district of over 14,000 residents and the Ramapo Catskill Library System that will go into effect starting October 1st.

However, what is really needed is for the Education Department or the Legislature to take the necessary legal steps to assign all untaxed and unserved areas in the state to the chartered service areas of existing libraries. This obviously was done with school districts many years ago, so that no area of the state is not assigned to a public school district. Work should begin now to affect the same sort of project for libraries. While the changes in 90.3 are helpful, they do not really provide for a permanent solution to the problem. Contracts for library services are subject to the "whims" of school boards and local governments. If the individuals on an elected board change, the contract may not be renewed. However, if all areas of the state were included within chartered service areas, the problem of contracts for library service would not be an issue.

Another major, and controversial issue that the members of the Commission shoud face is the vast number of library systems operating within the state. Is it really necessary to have more than 70 systems? I have worked within two public library systems, am the former director of a central reference library, and am the current president of the Board of Trustees of a 3'R's system. It has become increasingly apparent to me, and many of my colleagues, that the formerly distinct roles of New York's library systems have become very blurred for a variety of reasons. The major reason is the similarity of electronic projects undertaken by systems of all types. Virtually every system operates an online catalog of its members holdings, and many efforts are underway to create virtual union catalogs to allow different systems' members to see and utilize the holdings of all types of libraries within a region. Is it the most effective use of state funding to have 70+ systems all doing the same thing, and with varying degrees of success? With a fixed amount of state aid for basic system operations, wouldn't that money be spent far more wisely on fewer, but more effective systems, to help eliminate the duplication of efforts?

California has fewer than 20 systems to serve many more libraries and a much larger geographic area. Closer to home, Massachusetts has only five systems. Both states utilize multitype systems. In the 1980's I served on the King study commission project here in New York. One of the recommendations that group made a decade ago was for New York to move towards multitype systems. Virtually nothing has been done to date to facilitate that change. The Regents Commission should strongly recommend that this step begin by directing the Division of Library Development to immediately come up with a timetable for the merging of library systems around the state.

Another controversial issue that the Commission should be examining, with recommendations for enforcement, is what constitutes a public library. Public libraries, in many ways, are their own worst enemies, by allowing so many substandard facilities to call themselves libraries. Schools have well-established standards for curriculum, teacher training, etc. Why should libraries be any different?

This issue also leads to another major problem, which is the overuse of better-funded libraries by the residents of poorer libraries. In Middletown, which is not an affluent community, the residents have supported the construction and operation of a modern, well-equipped, and professionally staffed library. However, to cite one example, a neighboring library just over the Orange County/Sullivan County border (Bloomingburg) is funded at a per capita level that is about one-eighth the level of Middletown's. As a result of direct access, Bloomingburg residents borrowed more materials in 1998 from Middletown than they did from their home library. Something is wrong here.

The ideal of access for all of New York's residents to library services is an admirable one. However, is it realistic or fair under the current funding levels we see from both state and local sources? If free, direct access is the goal, why doesn't that also apply to public schools? Shouldn't residents of the state be allowed to use the resources of all of the public schools in their area since their taxes support those schools? Schools receive, on average, over 40% of their budgets from state aid. Middletown Thrall Library, in 1998-99, received less than 1% of its budget from the state. If public library service, which is overwhelmingly paid for by the taxpayers of local communities, is supposed to be open to all residents of all parts of the state without restrictions, where is the state financial support to achieve this goal?

Thank you for the opportunity to make these comments.

Jeffrey M. Garvey, Director of Library Services, Mercy Hospital Library, Watertown

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to draw the Commission’s attention to the important work done by the Hospital Library Services Program.

Recent studies have confirmed the value of information services in helping health care practitioners make better informed clinical decisions. These studies found that library services helped reduce cost (average savings of $7000 per patient in one study), eliminate unnecessary tests and procedures (down nearly 49% in another study), and avoid morbidity and mortality nearly 4% of cases examined in a third study).

The largest impediment to providing library services in most institutions is the expense of stocking and staffing an adequate medical library – easily $100,000 per year. Since 1981, the State of New York has been allocating funds to allow for shared library programs in each of the 3Rs Council areas.

The North Country 3Rs Council adopted the circuit librarian model. This model involves the use of a shared librarian who visits participating facilities on a weekly basis. At each hospital, the librarian makes rounds of nursing stations, departments and doctors offices, determining information needs and distributing materials from previous requests.

State funds are supplemented by annual fees charged to institutions based on the size of the hospital and the amount of use it makes of the service. This makes quality library services affordable to even the smallest hospital in the state - which happens to be the 20-bed Star Lake hospital served by our circuit. During the past year, out of the Watertown circuit alone, program participants received 20,000 documents and asked for literature searches on 3,000 topics.

Recently, we have responded to an increasing demand for consumer health information. The trend in medicine for patient participation in health decision-making has far exceeded New York States libraries’ ability to provide accurate and understandable health information. Consumer health information is an expanding area of critical need for our future services.

We have also attempted to make services available to non-acute care facilities such as nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and clinics. With the trend to treat more and more patients outside the hospital, these facilities are seeing more acutely ill patients and their need for information to deliver quality medical care has risen accordingly.

I urge the Commission to consider the needs of both consumers and health facilities outside hospitals and find the funding necessary to support library services to these important constituencies.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the very important partnership role the 3Rs Councils play in the Hospital Library Services Program. Besides the obvious function of distributing state funds and ensuring that they are spent wisely, the Councils also provide a number of shared services that the programs themselves couldn’t provide. These include cataloging, continuing education, interlibrary loan, shared access to databases and advice and consultation.

Thank you for this opportunity to assist you in your deliberations.

Neerajana Ghosh, Coordinator, New York City School Library System

I was recently part of a letter writing campaign at the Donnell Branch of the New York Public Library where I discovered that while people appreciate their libraries, they are not as willing to support their libraries, when asked. Perhaps they are not aware of what makes our libraries "free." All they know is that they like coming to the "library," whatever kind it may be.

Whatever the case may be, I am very concerned about the future of libraries, especially our especially our school libraries. Here in New York City, many of our elementary schools do not have "functional libraries"; they do have a room that was designated as a "library." More than likely they have a "teacher assigned to the library," who is not only not a trained librarian, but also someone who clusters, or teaches several classes, besides fulfilling their library duties.

I ask the Regents to remove the loophole that allows the elementary schools to assign untrained staff to run our elementary school libraries and replace them with trained , licensed librarians. I also that Regents make available to our licensed school librarians, , free professional development opportunities at all SUNY and CUNY campuses.

Lastly I ask that all administrators be required to take courses that focus on all aspects of school library administration. I have discovered that many school administrators have no idea of the library's role in literacy or information acquisition.

Carol Kadamus, School Library Media Specialist, Voorheesville CSD

The elementary, middle, and secondary schools of New York State have a great and continuing need for school libraries. These libraries provide resources for the information and reading needs of students and teachers. Most importantly, school libraries provide the instruction and assistance that students need to become independent users of information.

School libraries need the support of BOCES School Library Systems to function optimally. The School Librarys Systems provide coordinated services in the areas of automation, cooperative collection development, resource sharing, technology support, in-service training, and group purchasing. These services are especially important to libraries in smaller school districts where individual purchase of these services is less cost-effective.

Considering the rapid rate of change in information technology, it is essential for school libraries to provide up-to-date resources and the instruction students need to use these resources. Schools need continuous funding to purchase resources and train their library staffs. Special programs and grants are useful in helping school libraries catch up in the use of new technologies.

In short, school libraries are an essential part of library service in New York State. If they have coordinated support and adequate funding, school libraries can play a significant role in improving the library services in New York State.

Dr. Martha Leung, Amherst Central High School
Dr. Eugene Stanwich, Amherst Central Middle School

STILL I AM LEARNING
MICHELANGELO'S FAVORITE MAXIM

Many of New York State' citizens claim this maxim by using their libraries. The knowledge explosion of the information age is upon us. Seventy-five percent of all scientist and inventors ever born are alive today and doing research. Modern communications allows word of new breakthroughs to be flashed around the world. Those doing research immediately begin to build on the newest findings. The knowledge explosion continues as even newer findings are issued.

The citizens of New York State must turn to their libraries for the information they need. This knowledge appears in many formats: books, audio, video, and digital. It would be impossible for the individual to purchase all this information. Sharing this vast knowledge through their libraries empowers the individual. The citizen is not an observer but is a user of the knowledge base. What an individual can learn is only limited to the amount of time and energy they are willing to invest in using the library resources.

There is no aristocracy of learners with libraries available. The wealthiest and the poorest have the opportunity for learning if we support our libraries. The equality of this opportunity is part of the foundation of our democracy.

The Regents Commission on Library Service and all citizen of New York State need:

  1. To encourage adequate funding of libraries and library services. Libraries need the funds to be current with technology and the needs of the community. Data bases with vast amount of information seem costly but are in deed inexpensive for the wealth of information they provide. Libraries must maintain longer hours so that citizens have the opportunity to utilize these resources.
  2. Those people without the means of reaching the library should be able to have the library reach out to them with branch libraries and book mobiles.
  3. Funding must not only be aimed at Public Libraries but also at School Libraries. Requiring a certified Library Media Specialist in each public school is a necessity to guarantee that students at a young age understand the value of libraries and how to use them. School faculties working with librarians can integrate the curriculum with library resources making learning and libraries more authentic.

The Regents of New York State and the Citizens of the New York State must make a commitment to the Libraries of the State. This commitment must be philosophical aimed at the principles of the intrinsic value knowledge in a Democracy. This commitment must also be financial to ensure that all citizens of our state have the opportunity for intellectual growth and lifelong learning. All citizens of New York State are entitled to a library that allows them to fulfill their unending quest for knowledge.

Susan MacLeod, Director, Resource Center, O'Brien and Gere Engineers, Inc., Syracuse

Please be sure to include the O'Brien & Gere Resource Center as a NYS Special Library that wants to be sure that the services we receive through Interlibrary Loan are continued and/or improved. On a professional level, our corporation would be lost without the efficient, high quality service that we receive from the NYS libraries.

On a personal level, I think I speak for all of the employees here who use their local libraries for themselves and their families when I say that we would be lost without the NYS library system.

Elizabeth Naylor-Gutierrez, Librarian, Theodore Roosevelt High School Library, Bronx

Honorable Regents:

 School libraries are at a crossroads today: they can either play a vital role in the academic lives of students and the professional lives of educators or they can become simply rooms full of books. Technology is largely responsible for placing school libraries in this position, for technology is changing the face of teaching and learning. I envision the school library of 2010 as the academic heart of the school. It is in the library that students will receive not only access to the World Wide Web, but also guidance in navigating, evaluating and using the information they find. It is in the library that students will become adept at searching the automated catalog of the library’s holdings. It is in the library that teachers and librarians will collaborate on lesson plans that engage students and use a variety of instructional resources and strategies, including CD ROMs, and online databases. It is to the library that administrators and teachers alike will turn to find librarians who are conversant with the state learning standards that are available on the web and which demand that students be information literate. These librarians have copies of all the standards for teachers to use and are well-versed in activities and instruction that moves students toward meeting the new, more rigorous academic demands.

The libraries that I’ve described exist right now throughout the country. How close are current NYC school libraries to this ideal? Not nearly close enough and if technology continues to explode at its current pace school libraries will indeed be just rooms of books. How can this situation be remedied?

  • School libraries must be included in ANY technology initiative. More and more technology involves the accessing of information which students must be taught how to access, evaluate and use effectively and librarians are trained in such instruction and evaluation.
  • Library circulation systems must be automated to offer all students experience using online catalogs currently in use in public and college libraries. The state and city could negotiate with automation vendors and select ONE vendor to automate all NYC public school libraries, thus facilitating networking and communication among all schools.
  • School construction must increase to provide modern facilities conducive to technology instead of trying to haphazardly remodel decrepit school buildings that typically don’t even have enough electricity for technology.

New York City students will make up a large percentage of the work force in the next millennium and they deserve to have the facilities and instruction to realize their potential. The vast majority of NYC students do not have internet access at home and at my school there is only one internet connection in the library for our nearly 4,000 students. Where is the educational equity in those figures? I understand that NYC presents special problems in its numbers and bureaucracies, but such problems should not cloud our vision of educational equity and our moral obligation to educate each of our young citizens with the best available resources. We will all benefit from information literate, employable graduates.

New York City School Librarians' Association

Re: Library service to the one million public school children of New York City

Honorable Regents:

The members of the New York City School Librarians' Association (NYCSLA) work in the libraries of the public schools of New York City. We are in a unique position to see and understand the relationship of funding and administrative support for these libraries to the academic achievement of our students. Furthermore, current research supports the idea that strong school libraries have a direct and positive effect on student achievement We have seen evidence of this link, in those districts and schools where there is an active, state-certified librarian, and strong administrative support for the role of the library in the school, students are able to become familiar with a broad range of literature and information sources and student achievement improves. They are able to learn how to learn. However, even in schools with such librarians, the learning experience is circumscribed by other factors:

1. The budget: Our elementary and middle schools are totally dependent on the state mandated $4 per student for library materials. Unfortunately, this is inadequate at today's book, periodical and technology prices. The proposed, but not yet funded, $6 per student would be a step in the right direction, although even this increase would leave our NYC students behind their better-funded suburban counterparts. Our students have a right to current information in good, usable condition. Without this access, we cannot produce active, knowledgeable citizens.

2. Staffing and scheduling: Many of our librarians are the sole staff person in libraries serving over 1,000 students. Minimally, there needs to be funding for a full-time aid or paraprofessional to free the librarian to do a professional job. The librarian needs time to encourage a love of reading; help students find, evaluate and apply information; and support classroom teachers in helping the students achieve the new, higher standards. In schools over 1,000, there needs to be a second professional librarian, so that students can receive the attention and guidance they need and deserve, so librarians can jointly plan with teachers to integrate the new standards in every curricular assignment.

Inadequate staffing is a severe problem in our elementary schools. Since there is no state mandate that the teacher in the library be a certified school library media specialist, too many of our elementary school libraries are staffed by teachers who have no training in book selection, collection development, collaborative planning and integration of technology. All too often the position is solely seen as a way to cover teachers' preparation time, with little consideration given to the role of the library and information access in the whole educational process. Only with flexible programming and trained and licensed staffing can the libraries play the important role of helping to create life-long learners and sophisticated users of information.

3. The lack of technology: Too many of our libraries do not enjoy the benefits of technology because library budgets have no hardware allotment. Electronic searching is no longer an occasional oddity; it is one of the major ways of accessing information. All of our libraries need an automated catalog or else our children are condemned to learning in an outdated mode. All libraries should have access to fast Internet connections to take advantage of the information on the World-Wide Web and the subscription databases that are supported by state contracts. This access is a necessity for NYC public schools where so many of our students do not have computers at home. In addition, all of our students need guidance in how to search for and evaluate the information they find on the Web. Such guidance is one of the unique roles of the certified school library media specialist.

There has been much talk about the new, tougher graduation standards. We would like to see our students achieve these standards, but we fear that without financial and administrative support for our school libraries, the talk will remain only talk. If one looks carefully at only the language arts standards, the relationship of an effective library program to student achievement is clear. Our students are being asked to read 25 books per year. Without a decent library where will they obtain these books? Our children are being asked to write research reports. Without access to legitimate information sources, and guidance in how to access them, how will they get the information to do so? They are being asked to write a persuasive essay. Without access to facts and figures, how will they back up their arguments?

The days of learning by rote are over. Our students need to be taught to think critically and independently and the school library needs to be an integral part of this process.

Thank you for taking the time to read our statement. We look forward to your continued support.

Sincerely yours,

 Executive Board


Naomi Beth Gans, Librarian, Educational Complex at J. H. S. 99M, 410 East 100 Street, New York, NY 10029. Email: ngans@ralphbunche.rbs.edu

Helen Kostelas, Librarian, Theodore Roosevelt High School, 500 East Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458. Email: helenkos@prodigy.com

Mary Lord, Librarian, George Gershwin I. S. 166B, 800 Van Siclen Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11207. Email: MLord1854@aol.com

Elizabeth Naylor Gutierrez, Librarian, Theodore Roosevelt High School, 500 East Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458. Email: elizabeth.naylorgutierrez@gte.net

Adele Niederman, Librarian, F. H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the Performing Arts, 100 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10023. Email: aniederman@aol.com

Janet Prolman, Librarian, High School for Telecommunications, 350 67th Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11220. Email: prolman@hstat.k12.ny.us

Judith Schaffner, Librarian, SUMA, I. S. 218M, 4600 Broadway, New York, NY 10040. Email: jschaffner@igc.org

Doris Van Putten, Librarian, Basheer Quisim 53X, 360 East 168th Street, Bronx, New York, NY 10456.

Submitted by the New York Consortium of Consortia

John Shaloiko, Co-Chair
Executive Director, Southeastern New York Library Resources Council

Loretta Ebert, Co-Chair
Director of Libraries, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Anthony Ferguson
Associate University Librarian, Columbia University

GOAL

To achieve, through aggregation, affordable access to an array of resources and services, primarily electronic, for all types of libraries serving the people of the state of New York.

 

NEEDED TO ACHIEVE THAT GOAL:

  1.  Provide funding for a "Core Collection" of electronic resources broadly useful to all New Yorkers and available to all New Yorkers, through their libraries, from home, school and work.
  2. Fund full-time positions at the New York State Office of General Services to be devoted to negotiating State contracts on behalf of all eligible libraries in New York State (Eligible libraries are all libraries excepting private, for-profit corporate libraries.)
  3. Fund improvements to the state’s telecommunications infrastructure, connecting all libraries – school, public, academic, hospital, and special – to the high speed networks needed to delivery information fast and reliably to the people of the State of New York

 SPECIFICS OF NEEDS

  1. Provide funding for a "Core Collection" of electronic resources broadly useful to all New Yorkers and available to all New Yorkers, through their libraries, from home, school and work.

    Justification of need:

    New Yorkers of all ages and from all areas of the State need information – for education, health, research, and enhancement to the quality of life. We all expect that the information we were able to use from our place of work or from school, should also be available to us at our local public library or from home. For "core" information resources, the distinction between the types of libraries, and work, home, and school, diminishes. By investing in a "core collection" of electronic resources broadly useful to all New Yorkers, we are meeting a basic need, and at the same time, taking advantage of one of the main benefits of the Information Age -- that information actually becomes more affordable for all when access is provided to all.

  2. Fund full-time positions at the New York State Office of General Services to be devoted to negotiating State contracts on behalf of all eligible libraries in New York State. (Eligible libraries are all libraries excepting private, for-profit corporate libraries.)

    Justification of need:

    All libraries in New York can benefit from State contractual pricing on library products and services. Contracts negotiated by the New York State Office of General Services in 1997 and 1998 have saved libraries in New York State close to $3 million. But they are just the tip of the iceberg. Potential savings are tens of millions of dollars if more contracts could be negotiated to benefit libraries. However, the service scope of OGS results in many other demands, making it unable to devote staff to continuing these specific library efforts.

    This request would enable OGS to continue its work with libraries and enhance the work of the current coalition of the State Library, the New York Consortium of Consortia and the Office of General Services. An annual appropriation sufficient to support these positions would be needed to continue and to strengthen these important coalitions at work on behalf of libraries.

  3. Fund improvements to the state’s telecommunications infrastructure, connecting all libraries – school, public, academic, hospital, and special – to the high speed networks needed to delivery information fast and reliably to the people of the State of New York.

    Justification of need:

    As libraries use the digital collections and commercial electronic resources available to them, the need increases to insure a fast, reliable telecommunications infrastructure. When most libraries are becoming opening up the world of electronic information to their users, we need to ensure that lack of bandwidth and connections to national high speed networks don’t shut down the Electronic Doorway Library.

New York Consortium of Consortia: Who We Are

Background Information

Over the past two years the Office of General Services Office of General Procurement Services Group has worked in conjunction with the State Library and with the NYCofC, to identify priorities for State contracts which would benefit libraries. As a result of this effort, OGS staff have negotiated new contracts for books and serials, electronic databases and full-text digital products, resulting in great savings for all participating libraries. Those libraries which must follow State of New York procurement laws (such as SUNY, CUNY and the State Research Library) also saved staff time which would be required to negotiate and sign individual contracts. The contracts resulted in very deep discounts due to the ability to aggregate buying power.

Example of savings to New York libraries:

  • Lexis Nexis Academic Universe Using an OGS negotiated contract and aggregating buying power, the participating academic libraries in the state saved a total $1.2 million over the price of individual licenses. Over 400,000 students at academic institutions throughout New York State have access to this powerful digital reference and research tool as a result of this contract.
  • Grolier's Americana On-line Through another OGS contract 3.4 million residents in the State of New York have access to a respected encyclopedia on the World Wide Web. The cost of the product was 78% off the market price, saving libraries a total of $631,020.
  • Book Contract. OGS has negotiated a new book contract which includes, for the first time, aggregate volume discounts to be realized on the anniversary date of the contract (December 1, 1998). If the discount is just 1%, New York libraries will save nearly $1 million.

 A Volunteer Organization of Libraries

 The New York Consortium of Consortia (NYCofC) is a voluntary organization of representatives of library systems and consortia in the state of New York. We represent institutions in the public, academic, school, medical, legal and other specialized subject areas.Our organization includes: the City University of New York (CUNY), the Medical Library Center of New York (MLCNY), all of the New York 3R's (Reference and Research Resources Councils) Organizations (NYTRO), the New York Comprehensive Research Libraries (NYCRL), the New York Public Library, the New York State Library (NYSL), the New York State Office of General Services (OGS), Partners in Information and Innovation-Independent Higher Education (Pi2), Public Library System Directors Organization (PULISDO), School Library Systems Association (SLSA), the State University of New York (SUNY), Nylink, Westchester Academic Library Directors Organization (WALDO), Western New York Consortium (WNY), and others.

How We Help Libraries

The NYCofC negotiates aggregated contracts that offer librarians in New York State products and services, mostly electronic, at greatly discounted rates. At the same time, NYCofC offers vendors a way in which to broaden their market base, gain customers and streamline their administrative efforts. This creates a win-win situation for all involved. NYCofC accomplishes its goal in a number of different ways. Any one of the individual consortia members or representatives can bring an initiative to the group. We are committed to making any one of our contracts expandable to statewide dimensions.

State-Wide Initiatives Which Have Benefited From NYCofC Activities

Because of the scope and diversity of our membership, we are able to communicate quickly with all library sectors in the state and maximize the potential for large aggregate volumes. We have also offered a forum for vendors to hear what the libraries in this state want and need from them. Since our inception, less than two years ago, NYCofC members have held discussions with many vendors and we view this as an ongoing and important function of our collaboration. Our recent successes include contracts with Grolier, Lexis-Nexis, and UMI. The Grolier initiative alone aggregated over 800,000 FTE into a single contract representing an actual population of 3.4 million or nearly 20% of the state's entire population of 18 million. Additionally, as a result of discussions with the NYCofC, OCLC developed a model for statewide aggregation for FirstSearch, OCLC's first plan of this type in the country. Through the NYCofC, New York librarians are able to reduce costs for electronic databases while vendors are positioned to compete for, and profit from, statewide procurement of their products and services.

May 14, 1999

New York Regents Commission Member:

We are writing to inform you how a partnership between Nylink and OCLC has been helping New York libraries and their patrons for over 26 years. As membership organizations that value cooperative library efforts to achieve the common goals of improving access to information, OCLC and Nylink have been working together to reduce library costs and improve service to patrons in all types and sizes of libraries in New York state-from academic and public to school and special libraries.

Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing information costs. More than 34,000 libraries in 67 countries and territories use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials. OCLC members are working together, using the best of the past and the present to build the future of librarianship.

As the OCLC network in New York, Nylink (formerly the SUNY/OCLC Network) was founded in 1973 as a not-for-profit membership organization that provides services to all types of libraries throughout New York state and surrounding areas. The goal of Nylink is to enhance collaboration and cooperation and to facilitate access to, implementation and support of quality, cost-effective information technologies, products and services for its member libraries.

Together, Nylink and OCLC provide user support and training, troubleshooting and consultation for OCLC products and services to its member libraries. Additionally, Nylink provides broad-based information technology training for librarians at regional sites across the state and facilitates group-purchasing opportunities to help libraries obtain cost-effective alternatives to electronic information. Providing equitable service to libraries, library cooperatives and their respective patrons has been part of the service objectives of OCLC and Nylink. There are 2,154 libraries in New York using OCLC cooperative cataloging and/or resource sharing services.

For example, in southeastern New York, libraries of all types-academic, public, special and school-are creating a new, cost-effective way to cooperate and share resources with OCLC services. The Virtual Union Catalog -- a project of the Southeastern New York Library Resources Council (SENYLRC), a multitype library consortium -- uses OCLC services and software to link the region's library catalogs with reference databases and online full text. The Virtual Union Catalog also includes SENYSearch, a proprietary database derived from WorldCat (the OCLC Online Union Catalog) -- the most consulted database in higher education -- that contains holdings of the region's academic libraries. As these libraries use the OCLC Cataloging service to process their materials, their updated holdings are automatically made available to users through SENYSearch on the OCLC FirstSearch service.

OCLC's Interlibrary Loan services are also used throughout New York to ensure any citizen of New York is able to first borrow library materials from New York, and then elsewhere in the United States. To enhance the service, OCLC hosts a database that records all bibliographic information on published New York newspapers within the state. The information is accessible to all libraries and their patrons to assist with New York research.

In addition, the OCLC Office of Research, Nylink and OCLC member libraries -- including the State University of New York at Buffalo, Queensborough Public Library and Le Moyne College in Syracuse -- are exploring the future of libraries and their service to patrons through CORC (Cooperative Online Resource Catalog), a special research project. Because libraries of all sizes are struggling to provide integrated access to material on the World Wide Web along with their current resources, CORC has been developed to investigate the cooperative creation of a shared catalog of Web resources.

Together, OCLC, Nylink and New York libraries have contributed significantly to the cooperative effort of creating WorldCat, as well as the collective effort of sharing library resources through interlibrary loan (ILL). The following libraries have been recognized for their contributions to WorldCat and to resource sharing by achieving OCLC Gold Records.

WorldCat Gold Records awarded to New York Libraries:

  • Upstate Medical Center, now SUNY at Syracuse Health Sciences Library, contributed the 6 millionth record to WorldCat in 1980.
  • Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society contributed the 28 millionth record in 1993.
  • Cornell University contributed the 36 millionth record in 1996.
  • SUNY Buffalo contributed the 37 millionth record in 1997.

ILL Gold Records awarded to New York Libraries:

  • Upper Hudson Library System requested the 29 millionth ILL in 1990.
  • Hofstra University requested the 38 millionth ILL in 1992.
  • The University of Rochester requested the 58 millionth ILL in 1995.

OCLC and Nylink place tremendous value on the relationship we have built over the last three decades with the libraries of New York state. We look forward to continuing this tradition in the future to best serve New York libraries' and their patrons' needs. As the Regents Commission completes its work and develops its reports, we would be happy at any time to discuss and review any perspectives of OCLC or Nylink that would assist the Commission.

Respectfully,

Jay Jordan
President and Chief Executive Officer
OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.		 Mary-Alice Lynch
Executive Director
Nylink
Richard Panz

December 22, 1998

I appreciate the difficult task faced by the Commission in trying to sort out various issues related to library services in New York State and in developing realistic and achievable recommendations regarding future funding and organizational options. I have taken the liberty of summarizing below, my thoughts on the matter for your consideration. My suggestions are based on my combined 19 years experience as a Director of two Public Library Systems in New York State, which includes extensive work with trustees and staff of both urban and rural libraries. The suggestions are my own and do not reflect the opinions of my Board of Trustees, the member libraries of the System or other System Directors.

The problem

For the past forty years, New York State has invested a substantial amount of funds to develop library systems: public library systems in the 1940s and 1950s; reference and research library councils in the 1960's and school library systems in the 1980s. The result is a state-funded bureaucracy consisting of 77 library systems with growing appetites for state tax dollars.

For the past forty years, New York State has invested a substantial amount of funds to develop library systems: public library systems in the 1940s and 1950s; reference and research library councils in the 1960's and school library systems in the 1980s. The result is a state-funded bureaucracy consisting of 77 library systems with growing appetites for state tax dollars.

At the same time, though significant gains in library service have been made due to the efforts of these library systems, the ability to advance services further is thwarted by the inability of many local libraries to obtain sufficient resources to meet the growing demand for electronic services. As a result, local public library service has stagnated. Libraries are having a difficult time competing for their share of local property taxes. This financial pressure in turn, has resulted in libraries balking at complying with direct access provisions of State Regulations.

New York's public libraries are no longer seen as national leaders, in spite of the fact that nearly $90 million in state aid is being spent on library services. It is common knowledge in the national library community that public libraries in Ohio and Indiana are faring much better these days than New York's libraries. This is primarily due to their process for raising local tax dollars and the greater percentage of state aid directed toward local library services.

The solutions:

1. Encourage consolidation of Library Systems and services

The State must take a fresh look at library systems and find ways to make them more productive and efficient. Since mandating mergers may not be politically viable, it is recommended that any new state dollars for library systems from this point forward, be tied to a program that requires consolidation of services. The State should adopt a program that would achieve consolidation over a period of years.

To accomplish this, all library system state aid formulas should be frozen at current levels. New state aid should be earmarked exclusively to underwrite contracts between systems for services that each had been providing separately. For example, if two systems contract with third system to provide delivery services each had been providing to their members, the cost of the new contract could be eligible for state support, if the other two systems eliminate their delivery service and if the new delivery service results in a net reduction in the total cost of delivery service for all three. The money the save by not operating their own delivery service could be redirected to other ventures. Over the long hall, this would result in consolidation of services without the political turmoil caused by eliminating one type of system.

Consolidation of services through systems contracting with one another was introduced in the 1993 King Study of New York State Library Systems. The recommendations included in that study were never fully implemented by remain viable. I encourage the Commission to re-read that document and implement appropriate recommendations.

2. Enhance State Support for Local Public Library Services

If the State truly desires to improve library services to all New Yorkers and achieve a statewide policy of free direct access, significant funding increases need to be earmarked for local public library services. As a goal, the State should develop a plan that would result in the State contributing between 30% and 50% of the total cost of local public library service. This is comparable to the percentage of funding provided to local schools. The majority of future state aid increases should be targeted toward this goal. Once a significant level of state funding is achieved, free direct access can and should be mandated. This level of State funding would also provide a small measure of property tax relief for many communities.

3. Local public library funding

To significantly improve services on the local level, and to enable New York's public libraries to achieve "best in class" status, library services should be mandated statewide and all public libraries should be provided with an efficient means for obtaining a public vote on their budgets. If possible, the State should encourage/require that this be done on a countywide basis. This will broaden the base of support of libraries and address the issue of "free direct" access. Where appropriate, library systems should play a key role in developing county-wide funding propositions.

Securing a public vote on library funding propositions will allow libraries to bypass political barriers and other competing issues facing town, county and city officials and legislative bodies. This would be especially helpful for libraries serving larger urban areas such as Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Binghamton, Schenectady, etc. Obviously, the success of this change will depend on the ability of libraries to make a case to taxpayers that they offer good value for the tax dollars to be invested. Examples throughout the State and around the nation suggest that this can be accomplished when handled properly.

I recognize that the issues are much more complex than the simple three part solution I am proposing. However, I would encourage you to consider these alternatives in addition to the great number of very worthwhile and well though out suggestions you will undoubtedly receive. I wish you the best of luck with your very formidable task.

Ramapo Catskill Library System, Middletown
Richard V. Anglin, Director

The Regents decision to enforce the provisions of 90.3 that relate to fees for library service paid by individuals is a wise one. It provides an expanded definition of what public library service is.

We in RCLS will have an opportunity to enter into contracts with untaxed municipalities in this next year and provide library services to all residents of a community, without discrimination, in a public setting.

Our experience in working with 90.3 though, brings up several additional concerns:

  • Why are the standards for chartering public libraries so minimal?
  • Why is population size and the ability of a community to support a library adequately not a prime concern before a public library is chartered?

For older communities, how can they move into the 21st century and add automation and improve the quality of staff training unless the standards rise and they begin to consolidate with other libraries so there can be a better level of service.

Why not begin by making the minimum requirement for hours of operation to include four evenings a week, plus Saturday and Sunday hours. The number of hours open could be adjusted to fit this schedule which would provide access to all of the public library's patrons but should at least be 50 hours per week which means staffing needs to be sufficient to do this.

Require that libraries gain at least a 50% registration of library patrons in their communities and provide electronic access to the collections of all libraries in their system.

Require that each library offer Internet access to its patrons and work with its system to offer a minimum number of public access points in the library.

Require libraries to have a 56K minimum connection to the Internet.

It is good to increase the funding to systems but the libraries they serve should also be required to improve their services locally and some system funding should be tied to this local growth.

To this end, we should make information more readily available to trustees of member libraries about the ways in which funding might increase if they contracted with other areas for service or helped create special districts that were contract library districts. There ought to be financial incentives for libraries to do this.

One of the changes that has come about in library services since 90.3 was first promulgated is the growth in statewide electronic access.

In our system, Ramapo Catskill Library System, we have instant electronic reserves available to patrons on our automated circulation system. This access should only be available to those who have a valid library bar code number which shows that they are supporting a public library through their taxes or through a contract with a municipality or school district.

We have had fees for service in a community bordering a city school district library and the fees have not helped to build a consensus in that community for improved public library services.

Plus the fees are discriminatory because they require an ability to pay regardless of income, regardless of family size, or age, employment or educational level, in school or not.

We already have the ability in law to develop contracts for library service and we should use that ability to build library service for the public. There should be severely limited reasons for an individual to pay for basic public library services and there should be limits on an entire communities where access to a neighbor's tax supported book collections for circulation.

Our electronic access can provide locations of books and access to databases and to the services of our central library but should not open access to circulating materials owned by a local library.

One of the ways in which we can try to assure success as we make this change is for the Commissioner to include in the regulations a statement that it is perfectly legal for school districts to contract for library services with any chartered library in the state even it they are not chartered to serve that school district. That would help to clarity the situation for everyone statewide and would help systems as they begin to develop their plans for access.

I wish you success in your deliberations about how to improve access to library services and we stand ready to work with you in our system to implement the changes you may make.

Judith Schaffner, Librarian, I.S. 218 Washington Heights (Manhattan)

Honorable Regents:

I am a librarian at a public middle school in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. Our school has just under 1600 students and over 100 teachers. Although the school is divided into four academies, I service the entire school.

The library program is run on a flexible schedule, which means I collaborate with teachers and they sign up to bring their classes to the library on an as-needed basis. Individual students can come to the library on passes for purposes of taking out or returning books or doing research whenever there is open time on the schedule in which the library is not being used by a class.

The library is kept open after school until 4:30 four days a week through our collaborative relationship with the Children's Aid Society (CAS). CAS also pays for a clerical assistant during this after-school time. Just within the last few months, CAS has paid this same assistant to help in the library during the regular school day. In the after-school program we regularly see 50-70 students per day, proving that "if you open it, they will come."

I am proud that our library is so heavily used and that the library program is well integrated into the educational structure of the school. The program has benefited from strong administrative support at the school level. However, even with this support there are certain built-in weaknesses that make providing the level of service to which I feel my students are entitled difficult:

  1. In a school this size, we should not be dependent on the good will of an outside agency for clerical help. If I am to be freed up to perform as a professional -- teaching students how to access and utilize information, inculcating a love of books and reading and planning with teachers to deepen student use of the library -- there must be a full-time clerical assistant built into the program.
  2. Our budget consists solely of the state-allocated $4/child. Since my district leadership consistently has chosen to reallocate that state money within the district schools as it sees fit without any consultation with the district librarians, our school allocation this past year was $2/child. As I am sure you know, even the $4/child would be a totally inadequate amount to provide new books, replacement of lost or damaged material, software, videos and books on tape, as would be needed for a population our size.
  3. Although our library is one of the few automated libraries in the district, our software and hardware is old and in need of replacement. This becomes particularly acute in view of the approaching Y2K phenomenon. Many of the computers on the library LAN are 6 or 7 years old. The library automation software is DOS-based and needs to be upgraded to run with any new workstations we might be able to obtain. I have found, through private sources, a small amount of the money necessary for this upgrade, but feel that there should be money built into the budget for the obvious, necessary hardware and software upgrades that will be needed.
  4. Our sole Internet access that the students can regularly use is due to the two Project Smart computers and ISDN line. These are greatly appreciated and have expanded our resources considerably. The access we have to subscription databases through the Electronic Doorway [Library] funding to our State Library System unit has been wonderful. There is no way, with our small school budget, that we could afford these resources. However, just as wonderful as access has been, it has also been terribly frustrating. Due to traffic on the line, it is unbelievably slow and sporadic. Just last week, two classes visited the library for information that needed an up-to-date news source. The WEB and those subscription databases were obvious choices. However, during both class sessions we could not get on line and the students were unable to obtain the needed information. They were also unable to experience guided teaching in electronic searching and evaluation of WEB sites. Most of our students do not have this access at home. We need a T-1 line, with many more workstations that have dependable access to the Internet.

The fourth grade reading scores have just been released. They are not high. I have no reason to believe that the eighth grade scores will show any considerable change in level. Yet, we continue to underfund and ignore one of the major sources our students have for access to books, other print material and the electronic sources so necessary for developing a knowledgeable adult in the 21st Century.

Research has shown that a well-staffed and well-stocked school library media center can make a substantial difference in student achievement. Common sense tells us that students need access to books in order to improve their reading. I urge your committee to recommend an increase in mandated funding for school library materials and technology and to mandate licensed librarians and clerical assistants in every school library. I urge you to press for the refunding of the Electronic Doorway bill.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Catharine D. Wolf, Fairport

In ancient Alexandria, we are told, it was the librarians' duty to maintain a collection of medicinal herbs -- a growing garden for reference, in order to ensure that all medical knowledge was maintained for the benefit of humankind. This was a form of information in addition to all the valuable books available in the library.

Although times have changed, libraries still serve this function: to make the highest quality of knowledge available. Libraries still are responsible for providing the books, but now must also provide the best the internet has to offer, as well. This is expensive. However, our society is committed to making information (both factual and cultural) available to everyone, even those who have the least.

The libraries of New York State need financial support in order to provide a uniformly high quality of service to the public.

Norman Zierler
Principal, North Bay School

I am principal of North Bay Elementary School in the Camden Central school district. I am writing to support the proposition that we must assure ready access to library service for the education and information needs of all New Yorkers. We are in the heart of an information acquisition era, with stringent new communication standards in place. Libraries are our most precious resource for the acquisition, use, and presentation of information. I urge you to maintain the excellent quality of library services we now enjoy.

Thank you very much.

Last Updated: June 9, 2011