Please visit the NJLA Capwiz site and send a message to the Governor and your State Senate and Assembly representatives asking them to restore library funding and oppose A2555.
http://capwiz.com/ala/nj/utr/1/IXPMMGCLZR/BYABMGCMAX/4898317546
We need your voices to be heard in Trenton!, Thank you,
Pat Tumulty
NJLA Executive Director
To the New Jersey library community:
NOTE: You may have seen the email sent on Friday, May 2 to VALE libraries regarding NJKI. This email was based upon a meeting that Norma Blake and I had with Judy Cohn, Marianne Gaunt and Anne Ciliberti the prior day. VALE libraries urgently needed information on how to proceed for FY09 and, with the NJKI funding stream still being honed, we all decided that it would be best for these libraries to prepare for the worst case scenario in terms of Academic Search Premier.
That being said, the meeting held on April 22 and facilitated by the Governor’s Office did not yield any commitment of funding for the additional $1 million needed to return NJKI to its previous funding level. In addition, those present at the meeting from the Dept. of Labor, the Economic Development Authority and the Governor’s Office made two points very clear-first, getting continuing or additional economic development funding will be dependent upon NJKI resources being available remotely; and second, that databases of use to the general business community such as RefUSA and Academic Search Premier* would be considered more favorably than those directed toward niche markets.
At this time $2 million remains in the state budget for NJKI. We will not know for certain that we have those funds until the budget is approved. Angie Maguire of the Office of Economic Growth (OEG) has agreed to help us acquire US EDA federal funds or to arrange a demonstration for state agencies serving workforce development and small businesses. The Governor has told the State Librarian that along with OEG his office will reach out to Pharma to try to add funds to NJKI.
Two clarifications Norma and I would like to make regarding recent information being circulated regarding NJKI:
1. We did not knowingly contract for $3 million with a $2 million budget. We had to continue multiyear, existing contracts; and
2. We did not duplicate what higher education does. Higher Education took individual contracts for their target audiences when NJKI was shut off. We also contract with some of the same vendors, but for different products.
*Academic libraries, please note that Academic Search Premier may be offered remotely to everyone through Jersey Clicks, but that there is no money outside of NJKI to again purchase or contract specifically for academic institutions.
Norma E. Blake
New Jersey State Librarian
Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer, MSLS
Associate State Librarian for Library Development
New Jersey State Library
Mail: P.O. Box 520 [Location: 185 West State Street]
Trenton NJ 08625-0520
Ph: (609) 278-2640 ext. 170; fax: (609) 278-2650
kpeiffer@njstatelib.org
IM: KatOcrck (AIM)
VALE NJ: Virtual Academic Library Environment Blog 