A List
4/14/03

SLU RECEIVES GRANT FOR LIBRARY CONSORTIUM

CANTON - The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a grant of 
$40,000 to St. Lawrence University to support planning for a 
library consortium that includes St. Lawrence and four other 
independent colleges.
	The project, called ConnectNY, allows the institutions 
to share library holdings, making the collections of all five 
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 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 on all aspects of the consortium, 
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.
	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.
	"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," said St. Lawrence President 
Daniel F. Sullivan. "This assistance will help to ensure that 
private colleges and universities will have a voice in determining 
how library resources in New York State are shared in the future."

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