| Rensselaer Shares
in Mellon Foundation Grant for ConnectNY Library Consortium
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded
a grant of $40,000 to support planning for a university
library consortium that includes Rensselaer, St. Lawrence
University, Colgate University, Rochester Institute of Technology,
and Vassar College. The consortium, called ConnectNY, allows
the institutions to share library holdings, making the collections
of all five readily available to students, faculty, and
staff.
 Statistics
for the first six months of use show Rensselaer to be the
biggest net borrower as compared to the other four institutions,
says Research Libraries Director Loretta Ebert. “Our
access to more than two million unique titles [through the
ConnectNY project] clearly increases our own holdings by
a factor of three or four.”
In addition to vastly increasing the number
of offerings available to library users, the new system
speeds delivery of volumes from participating institutions.
Library users may borrow materials from ConnectNY libraries
by requesting them online, and items are then delivered
to their own library for pickup, usually within 48 hours.
The ConnectNY union catalog and statewide
delivery system became available in March 2002. With the
assistance of the grant from the Mellon Foundation, ConnectNY
will now undertake a series of comprehensive discussions
including governance, long-term financial sustainability,
technical viability, and membership growth. Members of the
consortium will work with consultants and institutions that
use similar arrangements in forming the plans.
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