In three steps, METRO helps member organizations bring forgotten historical artifacts from their basements to international audiences.
Culture in Transit, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, takes shared digitization technologies and expertise to libraries, archives, and communities throughout the metropolitan New York area. METRO has two mobile digitization kits. One is equipped with a flatbed scanner and a laptop loaded with image editing software; the other contains a digital camera and copy stand set-up. All of this packs up easily into two cases and a backpack. Our knowledgeable staff then helps members digitize and share the city’s rich cultural heritage online with the world.
In addition, METRO has funded nearly 100 digital collections over the past eight years. Digitization Grants provide funding to offset the technical and personnel costs associated with digitization projects. Approved uses for funds include hardware, software, outsourced services, consulting services, staffing, training, web design, project evaluation, and promotion.
METRO offers a collection hosting service for METRO member institutions to make their digital collections available online. Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York, or DCMNY, features digital collections and exhibits from participating libraries, archives, museums and historical societies located in and around New York City. DCMNY also serves as an easy on-ramp to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).
More often than not and frequently by accident, institutions describe their digital collections with quirky, unique metadata that make their content hard to find on the web. Through a unique partnership with the NY3Rs Association, the Empire State Digital Network collects metadata from non-profit cultural heritage organizations throughout the state of New York, including libraries, archives, historical societies, and shares that data with the Digital Public Library of America. Our expert team refines and normalizes metadata, exposes it to the DPLA for ingestion, and ultimately drives more traffic to digital collections across New York State.
METRO has developed and maintains unsurpassed services to facilitate resource sharing among our member libraries. Our resource sharing services open the world of knowledge to patrons of our member libraries by providing access to collections around New York City and Westchester County.
METRO maintains a same-day delivery service among our member libraries. Delivery service ensures that our members can count on efficient access to items from collections throughout METRO’s service area. Read more about METRO’s Delivery Service.
METRO’s Referral Card system expands patron access to collections and resources throughout New York City and Westchester County. We offer two levels of Referral Card service: yellow cards allow patrons to access that one item that will complete their research, while blue cards provide full access to library collections beyond their home institution. Read more about our referral cards.
METRO offers member discounts on many useful services from library vendors. For more details on how to take advantage of any of the great offers below, contacts us at info at metro dot org.
| Vendor | Discount |
|---|---|
| Backstage Library Works | 5% discount |
| Boopsie for Libraries | custom |
| Bridgeman Education | 10% discount |
| Budget Library Supplies | 10% discount |
| Chip Taylor Communications | up to 40% discount |
| DEMCO | up to 15% discount |
| The Donohue Group, Inc. | 5% discount |
| Drexel University Online | 20% discount |
| EBSCO Publishing | |
| Foundation Directory Online | 10% discount |
| Gaylord | up to 20% discount |
| PacerMonitor | 25% discount and more |
| Plunkett Research Online | up to 20% discount |
| Portico | 5% discount |
| PrivCo | 15% discount |
| Reprints Desk | 10% discount |
| Soutron Global | 30% discount |
| Text a Librarian | waived setup fee |
| University Products: The Archival Company | 10% discount |
| Venmill Industries | up to 25% off |
| Vernon Library Supplies | up to 20% off |
New York State recognizes the contributions academic libraries make to state and regional resource sharing. The Coordinated Collection Development Aid (CCDA) program provides annual grants to academic libraries at public and not-for-profit colleges, universities, and community colleges. Since 1981, academic libraries in the METRO region have received more than $8 million in coordinated collection development aid from this program. Read more about Coordinated Collection Development Aid
The METRO Hospital Library Services Program (HLSP) supports the work of more than 65 hospital and medical center libraries in New York City and Westchester County. We seek to develop, enhance, and improve the delivery of health care information between member libraries and health care professionals. We use outreach and targeted support to make sure that local hospital and medical center libraries apply for any grants for which they are eligible.