WNYLRC and its committees produce scholarship, research, and data to assist and inform library workers about a variety of topics covering public, academic, and special library interests. Please find additional information about these efforts below.
Accessibility in Libraries
This guide is meant to be an informational resource for libraries researching accessibility standards for their spaces, from physical to digital. This resource is maintained by Caitlin Kenney, Research and Reference Services Coordinator at WNYLRC.
Podcasts from the Past
An audio/video series designed to share fascinating stories in WNY history, highlighted through collections of unique primary sources housed in WNYLRC member institutions. This growing collection of recordings is created and supported by the Preservation Committee.
WNYLRC Libraries Open Data Project
In 2022, WNYLRC funded the collection of salary data for academic library staff in the Western New York region. Project members systematically detailed the process of data extraction from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) database, analyzed the survey data, and created interactive visualizations. The goal of this guide is to provide access to the Tableau visualization and instruct users on how to access salary data on the IPEDS website. This project was incubated in the Resource Sharing Committee.
WNY Libraries Asset Mapping Survey Report
Libraries are often cited as critical “community anchors'' for providing people with access to digital devices, skills, and broadband (Taglang 2015). We need to find out how prepared our libraries are to take on and grow in these new roles so they can receive the resources and support needed to successfully respond to their constituents. The WNY Asset Mapping Survey was developed by WNYLRC’s Library Education Advancement & Partnerships (LEAP) Committee in 2022-2023 to help identify areas in the region where digital equity resources can be found (broadband, device, skills training access and related resources like maker spaces), as well as current and future plans for enhancing these services to local communities served by all library types.
The full datasets used to generate the Asset Mapping report are found below. For more information on this project, please see the Asset Mapping section on our Digital Equity page. This data is provided in .csv format.
Press Release: More Resources Needed to Support Libraries in Western New York
