1980-1989

1980
January - The Council publishes a nine-year index, edited by Neil Surprenant of Paul Smiths College, to Adirondack Life magazine.

May - The Council office moves from East Hall to the Owen D. Young Library at St. Lawrence University.

1981
January - Work begins on the OCLC Union List of Serials project, with the Council being the first 3Rs to join the project. Member libraries with OCLC terminals input their own serials; the NC3Rs staff updates holdings of those libraries without terminals.

1982
July - The Council begins to administer the State Coordinated Collection Development Grant program for academic libraries.

1983
The Rural Hospital Libraries Program is initiated. A Coordinator, Circuit Rider Librarian, and Clerical Assistant are hired to develop a program to meet the information needs of 14 participating rural hospitals. A full range of library services is set up, including reference, cataloging, current awareness, interlibrary loan, continuing education, collection development and data base searching.

March - The Council acquires a TRS-80 micro-computer. This computer is used to transmit ILL requests to Mercy Hospital in Watertown and to the

Regional Medical Libraries around the state as part of the rural hospital library program. It is also used to send all ILL requests to the State Library.

April - The Collection Development Committee completes the Regional Collection Development Plan, one of the first three in the State to be approved.

June - NC3Rs begins coordinating and contributing to a daily interface delivery between SUNY/OCLC Solid Service and the Associated Colleges delivery service.

1984
November - The Council is designated as the agent for the North Country Regional Bibliographic Data Base and Interlibrary Resource Sharing program, funded by State Omnibus Library legislation. With the assistance of consultant Dr. Ralph Shoffner, the Regional Automation Committee and Council staff prepare a five-year automation plan for the North Country region.

1985
January - The Hospital Libraries Program is expanded by Omnibus Library legislation to include urban hospitals such as Mercy Hospital and House of the Good Samaritan.

June - The microfilming of the Malone Evening Telegram is completed, finishing a 10-year project. Since 1969 over $38,000 is expended in microfilming local newspapers.

1986
March - A second hospital Library Circuit Rider Program is established at Champlain Valley Physician's Hospital, Plattsburgh.

Bridget Doyle is appointed to the newly created position of Regional Services Coordinator.

October - HOBO, the Council's Electronic Mail System, is developed by Tom Blauvelt. HOBO is originally used by 40 libraries. Its participants now number 337.

1987
March - Joyce Ward is hired as Data Entry Specialist.

July - The Council builds and moves into its own office building on Commerce Lane, the first of the nine 3Rs Councils to own its own "home."

October - The Council obtains grant funding to publish, for the first time, a consolidated union list of the holdings of the five school library systems’ serial holdings.

The Council begins subsidizing, through Regional Bibliographic Database funds, member's participation in GAC (OCLC Group Access).

1988
The Council adds 10 members to the original five libraries using OCLC Group Access. A new Council committee, Conservation/Preservation, is formed.

1989
January - Richard Kimball retires as Executive Director after 18 years of service.

March - The Council publishes the first edition of an electronic representation of the bibliographic holdings of 27 libraries and systems in the region. The format is CD- ROM, and the product is called IMPACT.

June - John Hammond begins his tenure as Executive Director of the Council.

August - The Five-Year Regional Automation Plan is approved by the Board and submitted to the State Education Department.