A List
3/8/04

ST. LAWRENCE AWARDED GRANT FOR LIBRARY CONSORTIUM

CANTON – The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a grant of $250,000 to 
St. Lawrence University, in collaboration with four other New York State 
independent colleges and universities, supporting development of a 
resource-sharing system for academic libraries throughout the state. 
	The project, called ConnectNY, allows the institutions to share library 
holdings, making the collections of all five readily available to students, 
faculty and staff. Colgate University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 
Rochester Institute of Technology and Vassar College join with St. Lawrence 
to form ConnectNY.
	The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation last year awarded a $40,000 grant to 
plan the project. This award, for implementation, builds on the success of 
the planning project and pilot project, which included handling over 10,000 
book requests by the five libraries. 
	Development of a mission and goals statement was also part of the 
planning process. Among the organization's goals is the addition of five new 
academic library members to ConnectNY in the next three years. 
	The ConnectNY union catalog and statewide delivery system became 
available in March of 2002. In addition to vastly increasing the number of 
offerings available to library users and reducing resource-sharing costs, 
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.
	Senior Advisor for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Susan Perry  
commented, "The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is pleased to be able to support 
the development of this new collaborative effort for this group of academic 
libraries in New York State. We believe that it will allow their students and 
faculty to share resources in an efficient and cost-effective manner and that, 
in the longer run, it can serve as one model for resource sharing in New 
York State."
	St. Lawrence University President Daniel F. Sullivan stated, "On behalf 
of the five New York State institutions that comprise the ConnectNY consortium, 
I want to thank The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for this grant, and for the 
strong guidance and support provided for this project to date. With this 
assistance from the Mellon Foundation, it will be affordable for other colleges 
and universities throughout New York to join the consortium, and eventually, 
for it to become self-sustaining through memberships. It's an important step 
toward improving both the efficiency and the cost of shared academic resources."

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