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The article reports that the collections of the New York State Library in Albany will be available to all New York residents. In a six-month pilot project, all residents of New York State will now have access to the collections of the New York State Library in Albany. Previously, access was available only to state officials and employees, legislators, members of the state bar, state licensed physicians, and local government historians. With the project, announced by New York education commissioner Richard Mills, all New Yorkers 18 and older can borrow directly from the library's circulating collection, as well as getting remote access to the library's NOVEL online databases, New York's statewide virtual library. NOVEL includes a range of resources, including full-text electronic-collections of national and international newspapers and magazines. The policy addresses a 2000 New York State Regents Commission on Library Services report that outlined ten recommendations to improve library services in New York State, which included improving access to the collections of the state library.

This article reports that a consortium of libraries at five New York State independent colleges and universities have been awarded a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support development of a resource-sharing system for academic libraries throughout the state. The project, called the ConnectNY, allows the institutions to share library holdings, making the collections of all five readily available to students, faculty and staff.

Relates news briefs on digital libraries. A partnership at Cornell University with computer scientists and librarians to develop better strategies for documents and other data; The funding by the United States Department of Education of two projects at Columbia University to make South Asian resources and library collections more available through enhancement and use of the World Wide Web.