STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT /
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234
The Honorable the Members of the Board of Regents
Carole F. Huxley
Education Major Issues for 2005/06
June 3, 2005
Goals 1, 2, 4
What should be the Regents role in relation to Cultural Education’s five major issues, and how can the staff best support the Regents in carrying out their role?
Review of policy and actions
to implement policy.
Each of the issues requires Regents engagement and support. The CE Committee will discuss the status of issues related to each initiative and explore strategies the Regents may pursue to advance their objectives.
1. In 2001, the Regents approved New Century Libraries, the Report of the Regents Commission on Library Services, which proposed ten major recommendations to enable New York’s libraries to respond to new and emerging needs for an increasingly information-driven and diverse society. Legislation to address the ten recommendations was advanced, but has not yet been enacted. Progress in the absence of additional funding has nevertheless occurred, but realization of the plan depends upon enactment of the legislation.
2. Rediscovering New York History and Culture:
Supported since 1987 with modest funds, ensures that under-documented
areas of our history are not lost or inaccessible. An infusion of additional funds from the
CE Fund will enable the effort to more fully meet the need to capture history in
danger of being lost.
3. Transforming the State Museum: Underway but
requiring integration of new technologies and improved techniques for
interpreting our natural and cultural histories.
4. Research and Stewardship Facility: Approved by the
Regents in November 2004 to respond to the preservation needs of the Museum,
Library and Archives collections, and to accommodate the expansion of
collections over the next two decades.
5. Closing the Performance Gap: Despite many model
initiatives across the State, there is still no systematic program to bring to
bear the learning resources of cultural institution on the challenge of closing
the performance gap.
The major priority of the
Office of Cultural Education is increasing access to, and greater use of
cultural materials. Libraries,
museums, archives and public broadcasting are repositories of knowledge on which
most learning rests. For the
youngest child, they both stimulate and satisfy curiosity. For the oldest individual, they are
often the best connection with the changing world. In between, they support all
levels of formal education and independent learning. They are stewards of our
past, and make possible its interpretation to new generations. At the same time, their collections are
resources for the production of new knowledge. New Yorkers of all ages and
conditions of life should, therefore, have easy access to the extraordinary
cultural resources found in this State. Five key issues for the coming year all
relate to plans for expanding the availability and use of these resources for
research and learning.
The Regents should instruct
staff on the support needed for members to effectively advance these priorities
and deal with the issues blocking their realization.
By the start of the next
budget season (2006/7), staff will prepare strategies to support the Regents
role in advocating for issues one-four.
After the Summit in November, staff will develop a network of cultural
institutions in each region with two or three major initiatives to better
integrate cultural resources into closing the performance gap
OF CULTURAL EDUCATION
ISSUE: Finding ways to put its concepts into practice while advocating
for the investment necessary to realize the vision of New Century
2001 Regents approved the ten recommendations of the Regents Commission on
Library Services, a comprehensive set of strategies to make New York’s library
services serve the new and emerging needs of an increasingly information driven
society and an increasingly diverse population. Regents proposed legislation to
fund the ten recommendations has not yet gained support. This coming year a
pared down proposal focusing on two areas of immediate priority will go forward,
seeking sufficient funds to continue and enlarge the New York Online Virtual
Electronic Library (NOVEL) and to provide matching funds for much needed
renovation and construction of public libraries across the state.
supported through federal funds that cannot sustain it or grow it, provides
electronic access to very large collections of proprietary journals and other
subscription-based material not available free on the Internet. The State
Library negotiates with vendors a statewide price for their various sets of
“databases” as these collections are called. They are provided free to all the
academic, public and school libraries and are accessible to New Yorkers at their
offices or homes. To expand
and improve this heavily used information resource requires an ongoing State
than half the public libraries in the State are over 60 years old. Almost 40% of
them are not fully accessible to people with disabilities, and a similar
percentage do not have the wiring and infrastructure to take full advantage of
the new electronic delivery systems.
REDISCOVERING NEW YORK
HISTORY AND CULTURE
ISSUE: Ensuring the history of
under-documented groups of the population and of the century just past is not
lost or inaccessible.
a particular emphasis on the history and culture of groups and activities poorly
documented until now, the State Archives provides competitive grants and
technical help to local governments and to non-profit groups. It also supports
original research through the Archives Partnership Trust. Expanding partnerships
and resources to support this effort has some urgency, particularly related to
20th Century history.
The legislation for the Documentary Heritage Program and the Archives Partnership Trust provide inadequate spending authority for these two highly successful programs to continue to grow. This year we will seek an amendment to the legislation that created them. We will ask for an increase in spending authority for the grants from the Documentary Heritage Program and for the operating funds of the Archives Partnership Trust. The proposed amendment will come to the Cultural Education Committee in December.
TRANSFORMING THE NEW YORK
ISSUE: The State Museum’s
permanent exhibits were designed in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. They
neither reflect the research of the past 25 years nor the richness of the
remarkable collections of the State Museum. Integration of new technologies and
improved techniques for interpreting our natural and cultural histories are much
State Museum is the oldest and largest State Museum in the country and is
internationally known for the depth of its collections and the quality of
research done at the Museum. In 2001, the first phase of an exhibit master plan
opened with 25,000 square feet of new exhibits. Additional enhancements to
current exhibits, as well as the new World Trade Center Hall, have since then
been developed. Renewal of the remaining 150,000 square feet of exhibit space is
essential to the Museum’s future. The immediate need is for support to begin the
second phase of the exhibit master plan.
ISSUE: The collections of the State Museum, the
State Archives and the State Library are both massive and of major research
The Cultural Education
Center (CEC), a nearly 30-year old building, is almost completely out of
collection storage space.
Many of the storage areas in the CEC have
inadequate environmental and fire suppression systems, putting the collections
The State Records Center,
run by the Archives, is completely filled, requiring commercial lease of space
at a higher cost and lower environmental controls.
The Museum’s collections
are, in part, stored in a 100,000 square foot warehouse with seriously
Detailed projected space
needs for the three institutions show a 5-year need of an additional 500,000
square feet, and a 15-year need of 1,000,000 square
CONTEXT: The Department assembled a
Blue Ribbon Panel to assess the current buildings and to recommend next steps.
They concluded that the current facilities pose a major risk to the long-term
preservation, protection and management of these collections. On the basis of their findings, at our
request, the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York commissioned a
feasibility study and conceptual plan, including an engineering systems design
and a site search. The resulting plan scopes out a “green building” with modular
collection spaces that ensure the ability to expand when collection growth
requires it. The Museum is a major research institution, working in the areas of
biology, geology, archaeology, paleontology and history. The curators, research staff and their
labs will be housed adjacent to their collections in the new
The Regents have approved
the conceptual plan and have approved requesting $11 million for site
acquisition and architectural design. Gaining legislative and gubernatorial
support for the facility is a major priority.
ISSUE: At every level of education, there is a performance gap between those living in poverty and those from more stable backgrounds. The resources of libraries, museums, public broadcasting and even archives can be more successfully and systematically employed to aid the elimination of that gap. Their customers are persons of all ages and circumstances. If accessible and structured to meet real needs, these institutions’ programs can both enhance and continue the educational growth of those whose learning opportunities lag behind. While there are many good model programs, there is no statewide, coordinated and systematic effort, beyond the school and academic libraries, to link these programs with formal educational programs.
CONTEXT: The gap begins in
the very early years of a child’s life. Whether or not the child has: ready
access to books and being read to; a way to learn about the world beyond his/her
small sphere; opportunities to interact positively with other children; and to
engage in creative play are important elements in preparing for formal
education. Routine opportunities to have these sorts of activities are some of
the factors that determine whether a child will enter school prepared to
learn. Library programs and public
broadcasting, as well museums, have the potential to provide these opportunities
to children and their parents. How can we make these opportunities more
accessible and particularly welcoming to families in poverty? Focusing on one or
two powerful strategies may be a useful approach for the coming year. Other
options may come out of the pre-Summit