NY State Electronic Doorway Library Network

[Joseph Spadaro]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE       			               April 8, 1997
                                      
               Libraries Provide Road Map for 'Net Navigators
                                       
Libraries aren't just the on-ramps to the information superhighway. Now 
they're making the road a lot easier to travel.
  
An innovative joint library project unveiled today will give World Wide Web 
users a single point of access to all library web sites, online catalogs,
databases and other online resources across New York State.
  
The New York State Electronic Doorway Library Network (www.nyedl.net), 
established by New York's nine Reference and Research Resources Councils,
is a virtual network of all online resources of public, school, hospital,
academic and special libraries statewide.
  
Libraries provide access to online resources because more and more of the 
information that people need to live and learn and work is available
electronically.
  
Now, through the links provided by just one site--the EDL Network--users in 
libraries, homes and offices can look up information on Alzheimer's
disease in a consumer-health database provided by New York City libraries,
reach microfilm images of historic newspapers at the State Library in Albany, 
or discover information on the Pan-American African Village through the
Buffalo Museum of Science's research library.
  
The World Wide Web home page of each of the nine Reference and Research 
Resources (3Rs) Councils contains a gateway to the new EDL Network web
site: a state map divided by color into nine regions.  Every region is
linked to its respective Council's web page of local online library resources.  
  
Users can navigate between the web pages of all the regions and the EDL 
Network map to reach local resources throughout the state.
  
The EDL Network is also accessible through the New York State Library's web 
site at http://unix2.nysed.gov.
  
The 3Rs Councils, which are regional multi-type library organizations, 
established the network cost-effectively by using their existing technology 
and network infrastructures.  The project was funded, in part, by New York
State Electronic Doorway Library Services Aid of 1996.
  
For more information, please contact Joseph Spadaro, Director of Programs
and Services, New York Metropolitan Reference and Research Library Agency
(METRO), at (212) 228-2320 or spadaro at metgate.metro.org.

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