CT State Library | Federal Library Funding in Connecticut

The CT State Library's CT Digital Newspaper Project is the recipient of a federal grant that supports work in the State Archives on the National Digital Newspaper Program to digitize historic newspapers from across Connecticut. 

The researchIT CT program is estimated to save Connecticut libraries over $42 million per fiscal year by providing statewide resource and database licenses for use by libraries, schools, faculty, students, and residents. As these statewide licenses are heavily discounted, what they cost the state is an order of magnitude less than what it would cost in aggregate for all libraries in the state to individually subscribe to the same content. 

The statewide library catalog, findT CT, allows patrons and libraries to discover items from libraries across Connecticut with a single search. CT was the first state to use the open-source system, FulfILLment, which this year enabled 25,537,522 bibliographic records to be discoverable to the public across the holdings from 334 libraries.

As part of the eGO CT program, the CT State Library collection of over 40,000 eBooks and audiobooks is accessed through the Palace Project application used and shared with patrons by 178 CT public libraries, 17 academic sites, and 156 schools with the eGO CT Community Share program. With Palace, public library users have access to multiple collections of digital content including individual public libraries, regional library systems, the Palace Academic Bookshelf, the CT State Library's collection, the Palace Marketplace collection, and Axis 360 collection. 

Connecticut's statewide interlibrary loan service, requestIT CT, operates as a module in findIT CT, Connecticut's statewide library catalog. Both services use FulfILLment, an opensource software. There are currently 131 libraries that participate in the program and last year (FY23) 13,541 items were shared through FulfILLment.

The Workforce Solutions platform available through researchIT CT includes Job & Career Accelerator as well as four additional learning modules that effectively support workforce development within libraries in all Connecticut municipalities.

This project is made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Connecticut State Library.