The New York State Library is part of the Office of Cultural Education, within the New York State Education Department. The Library serves three major constituencies:
The New York State library celebrated its bicentennial in 2018. The Research Library, established by law in 1818, collects, preserves and makes available materials that support State government work. The Library's collections, now numbering over 20 million items, may also be used by other researchers on-site, online and via interlibrary loan.
The Talking Book and Braille Library (TBBL) lends braille and audio books and magazines, and special playback equipment to residents of the 55 upstate counties of New York State who are unable to read printed materials because of a visual or physical disability.
The Division of Library Development works in partnership with 72 library systems to bring library services to the millions of people who use New York's academic, public, school and special libraries. Library Development also administers State and Federal grant programs that provide aid for library services.
Ms. Moore has served in various leadership positions at public libraries and library systems throughout her career. Most recently, she has served as the Executive Director of the Pioneer Library System where she leads the development of 42 small and rural libraries in Ontario, Wayne, Wyoming and Livingston Counties by coordinating shared services. She previously served as the Assistant Director of the Pioneer Library System and the Deputy Director of the Southern Tier Library System. Ms. Moore has also served in leadership positions for various library professional organizations as well as for local, regional and statewide community service groups, including most recently, The New York State Complete Count Commission. The Commission was created to inform and help direct the State's efforts in the 2020 Census.
Ms. Moore earned her Master of Library and Information Sciences degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Rutgers University.
Learn more about previous New York State Librarians.
Liza Duncan joined the NYS Library team in 2000 serving as the Principal Librarian. She leads the Library's efforts to preserve, distribute, and make accessible documents related to the government and history of New York State.
In 2010, the Government Documents Round Table (GODORT) of the American Library Association (ALA) presented Liza with the Bernadine Abbott Hoduski Founders Award for her work with government documents. Under her leadership, the NYS Library scanned hundreds of thousands of New York State government document pages and downloaded thousands of born-digital New York State government documents to be accessible in its Digital Collections.
Liza was project supervisor for the New York State Newspaper Project overseeing a National Endowment for the Humanities grant funded preservation microfilming project of 4.3 million pages of historic New York State newspapers. She has been instrumental in establishing metadata standards for cooperative digitization projects involving the State Library, State Archives, and State Museum.
Before joining the New York State Library, Liza was Head of Technical Services at Albany Law School's Schaffer Law Library where she oversaw the implementation of the library's first integrated online library system. She began her career at Union College's Schaffer Library as Catalog Librarian specializing in name-authority control, Russian language materials, and microforms. Her professional memberships include the American Library Association, New York Library Association and various association chapters. Liza received her MLS from the University at Albany and BA from Syracuse University.