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New York State Library Policies

Priorities for the Research Library

Mission

The mission of the New York State Library Research Library is to serve as a reference and research library for the use of the government and people of the state.

Goals

Five major goals of the Research Library Strategic Plan:

  1. Target information services to meet primary customer needs
  2. Focus, build and preserve collections
  3. Increase the visibility of the Research Library
  4. Improve and expand staff productivity
  5. Evaluate and improve the facilities

Primary Customers

  • New York State government employees, including Legislative members and staff
  • People of the state via interlibrary loan, online, onsite, telephone, letter, e-mail and fax requests for unique materials
  • Individuals who need reading materials in recorded and braille formats in the 55 upstate counties

Priorities

  • To provide excellent public service to customers using the Research Library, including Manuscripts and Special Collections and the Talking Book & Braille Library
  • To meet the information needs of the New York State government and its agencies by collecting information in all formats and providing access to electronic information
  • To acquire at least one copy of all New York State documents
  • To make materials held by the Research Library available

Collections

The New York State Library Collection Development Policy will identify the subject areas that the Library will collect. Primary subject areas will include:

  • Materials relevant to New York State
    • New York State Documents
    • New York State Law and public policy
    • Genealogies
    • New York State and local history
    • New York State newspapers
  • Federal Documents and Law
  • Life Science
  • Technology and Applied Sciences
  • Business
  • Economics
  • Education

Functional Units

  • Administration - Research Library
  • Acquisitions
  • Cataloging
  • Circulation and Stack Services
  • Computer Applications
  • Documents (NYS and Federal)
  • Interlibrary Loan and Photoduplication
  • Manuscripts and Special Collections
  • Preservation
  • Reference
  • Talking Book & Braille Library
  • Projects: New Netherland Project and Newspaper Project

Updated 9/2/1999