In August of 2006, SUNY launched a shared, online library that is now accessible to students and faculty at 60 SUNY campuses. It is designed to insure that SUNY libraries will meet the information needs of all SUNY students and faculty.
SUNYConnect puts more than 18 million volumes and thousands of electronic resources and digital images all in one location, for students and faculty to access from any computer, anywhere, anytime.
SUNYConnect is the third largest collegiate library in the nation. This initiative is just one of many ways that the quality of a SUNY education is going from good to great.
SUNYConnect's reach doesn't stop there.
Through SUNYConnect, each SUNY library expands by integrating the newest technology- based library and information systems. It now includes specialized materials, such as those available at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse and other SUNY campuses, making it even more inclusive.
Students and faculty can request delivery from an array of physical materials from any of the campuses that participate in SUNYConnect. The requested materials are then delivered to the individual's home campus library within two to three days.
As a university system and provider of public higher education in New York State, we can be proud of SUNYConnect as it broadens our students' exposure to materials and simultaneously enhances the resources available to our faculty members and researchers. At each end of the higher education spectrum - for those who are learning and for those who are teaching - SUNY continues to make progress.
Complementing the success of SUNYConnect, SUNY's Learning Network, which supports and encourages distance learning over the Internet at 40 SUNY campuses, recently received the world's most prestigious distance learning award presented for excellence in distance learning, from the United States Distance Learning Association. SLN previously received awards for excellence in online instruction and programming from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Educause, two additional nationally-prominent organizations devoted to understanding and promoting distance education.
Since its launch in 1995, SUNY's Learning Network has grown to be one of the largest and most prominent online learning programs in the nation and has increased enrollment from just 119 students in its first year to more than 100,000 currently, with more than 100 complete degree and certificate programs and in excess of 4,300 courses available to students.
SUNYConnect is giving students and faculty in every corner of New York State and our students around the globe, the materials they need to learn more, and to teach better.