Faced with the dramatic funding losses proposed and being concerned about retaining core services for the field, the State Librarian has announced that effective May 1 she is continuing core services through one region. This is being done so that the remaining FY2010 money and regional carry forward left after meeting regional contractual obligations can be used by one region to provide core services for as long as possible.  Infolink was chosen, based on location, as the one region to be supported. It will provide the core services of interlibrary loan, delivery and databases statewide.  The State Library will work with Infolink to see what staff will be needed and what other services such as training and group purchasing can be provided as money and staffing allows. Infolink is strategically located to serve the north/central area for these services and the State Library will serve t he south/central area for the present.  This is not to say that regional offices will close any earlier or that regional staff will be terminated by the regions any earlier than they may be without this change.

For your planning purposes, libraries may continue using JerseyCat to place ILLs until June 30th and be confident that JerseyCat and statewide delivery will continue through July so that materials may be returned. Of course the restoration of funding will allow us to continue these services beyond July.  It is also our intention to continue existing databases into July until we have the final budget figures and know which databases, if any, can be continued. Further decisions on regional service will be made once the State Library knows what the budget will be in FY2011.