CaRDI regularly produces three publications targeted towards a broad stakeholder and general public audience, focusing on issues of community and economic development. The "Rural New York Minute" (one-page) and the "Research & Policy Brief Series (two-page) are both published monthly. The "CaRDI Reports", a longer 30-50 page report, is published every 3-4 months. All of these publications are disseminated to our stakeholders electronically, and are available on our website at www.cardi.cornell.edu. These publications serve as important outreach vehicles to provide critical and up-to-date information on rural New York people and communities to our stakeholders and promote informed decision-making at the local and regional level.

Local leaders, as well as the public in general, are often turned off by academic jargon, as well as the length and the format in which most academic research is published. However, much of this research contains important and relevant information that would assist local leaders and others to make more informed decisions in their community planning efforts. By regularly publishing up-to-date research in a more accessible and attractive format, as the three CaRDI publications do, significant barriers to accessing this information are removed for the general public.
Regularly producing these types of publications serves to more effectively deliver the various research and outreach efforts at Cornell to key policy makers and stakeholders around the state. This effort creates and supports a broad dialogue about key issues affecting rural people and communities in NYS, and has enhanced our ability to inform and affect policy.

Beginning in January 2007, CaRDI launched the "Rural New York Minute" and the "Research & Policy Brief Series", followed in March 2007 by the first issue of "CaRDI Reports". Each month we publish another "Minute" and "Brief", disseminate these to a large listserv audience, include them in stakeholder newsletters and communications, and post them to our website.

While the publication series are just over one year old, we have already been hearing positive feedback from our targeted stakeholders. Several of our stakeholder groups have published the CaRDI articles in their member newletters (such as the NYS Legislative Commission on Rural Resources, the NYS Rural Schools Association, and Franklin County CCE), local newspapers have picked up the articles, and local officials have used the information provided in their work (County Planning Commissioner). Readers have remarked that they like the format of the CaRDI publications, with the data displayed in a clear and generally understandable manner, and that the topics include important and current issues in their communities.