Meeting of the Board of Regents | April 2008

SUMMARY

Issue for Discussion

Shall the Regents establish a policy to advance a new statewide initiative to create a New York Digital Collection?

Proposed Handling

A member of the State Historical Records Advisory Board and a member of the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries will present an exciting new collaborative proposal to create a New York Digital Collection.  Representatives of the four key partners in this initiative, the Association of Public Broadcasting Stations of New York, the Museum Association of New York, the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries, and the State Historical Records Advisory Board will be present at the meeting.  Members of the Cultural Education Committee will have the opportunity to question the partners and discuss their proposal in detail.

Procedural History

The Association of Public Broadcasting Stations of New York, the Museum Association of New York, the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries, and the State Historical Records Advisory Board work with the Cultural Education programs of the State Education Department in developing comprehensive statewide policy and in making recommendations to the Regents for implementing statewide programs and initiatives.

Background Information

From its inception, the New York Digital Collection would be a collaborative project of New York’s libraries, archives, historical records repositories, museums and public broadcasting communities.  Broadly sweeping in its scope and content, the New York Digital Collection would be a multiphase statewide initiative.  

Phase One would include the design and implementation of a flexible and collaborative framework.  This would incorporate and interconnect existing local and regional digital resources and collections along with a variety of commercial digital resources.  The Office of Cultural Education would identify and pull together diverse collections of quality digital resources for easy 24/7 access for all New Yorkers through a user-friendly Web portal.  For example, the research resources of the NOVELNY pilot project and educational resources such as EdVideo Online and other standards-based digital content, instructional guides and teaching tools would be incorporated as part of the New York Digital Collection. The initiative would also establish a means for the long-term preservation of digital collections, assuring access to New York State’s history in digital form for future generations.

In Phase One, the Office of Cultural Education would work with national experts and a statewide advisory group to develop a broad all-encompassing vision for the collection, statewide standards, best practices and training for thousands of local, regional and state cultural heritage institutions, including those located in colleges, universities and local governments.  

Subsequent phases of the New York Digital Collection Initiative will include grants to local and regional entities. These grants would support addition of new digital content, training, the purchase of additional statewide licenses for authoritative content and video materials, and the inclusion of on-line tools and materials tied to the state learning standards to support P-16 education and lifelong learning. 

Recommendation

Staff recommend that the Regents adopt this collaborative statewide proposal as Regents policy and work with the leadership of the four key statewide organizations and other interested partners to create a New York Digital Collection.

Timetable for Implementation

Implementation should begin immediately as a basis for the 2009–10 budget and legislative priorities.