GUILDERLAND — Three candidates — David Bosworth, Judith Kahn, and Carroll Valachovic — have filed petitions to run for three seats on the library’s board of trustees.

Two of the posts in the May 21 election carry five-year terms, and will be assumed by the top two vote-getters. The candidate who comes in third will fill the remaining post, for one year.

“Finally, we have real people in the slots instead of waiting for results with white knuckles,” said the library’s director, Barbara Nichols Randall, referring to recent elections with write-in candidates.

The posts are unpaid on the 11-member board and, in the last decade, only one election — in 2006, when four candidates ran for three seats — has been contested. Write-in candidates have been frequent.

Asked why she thought three candidates had filed petitions this year, Nichols Randall said, “I think it’s a combination of what happened the last time, and the whole thing with the bond vote.” She added, “Hopefully, they’re all supportive of the library.”

Last June, a $13 million expansion project that would have upgraded the 20-year-old library and nearly doubled its size, was defeated, 3 to 1, by about a quarter of Guilderland’s 22,245 registered voters.

No candidates had petitioned to run in the May elections last year for the three open posts so they were to be filled with write-in candidates. Altogether, 103 candidates were written in for the posts.

“That was a disaster,” said Nichols Randall this week. “When they say, ‘The people have spoken,’” she quipped, when it comes to write-in votes, “Not very loudly.”

The top two write-in candidates took office, with 34 and 33 votes, and the third and fourth declined. 

The fifth, with 21 votes, Bosworth, wanted the post but did not get enough board votes. Ultimately, the board decided to canvass the public for candidates and, in October, Kahn was appointed to the vacant seat.

On May 21, in addition to voting for trustees, Guilderland school district residents will also decide on a $3.49 million library budget that stays under the state’s tax-levy limit, requiring a simple majority vote to pass. If the budget passes, the tax rate is expected to go up an estimated two cents, to $1.13 per $1,000 of assessed valuation for Guilderland residents.

Last May, the library’s $3.4 million budget passed with two-thirds of the vote — 2,103 to 1,072. The library’s operating budget has never been defeated.

Circulation at the Guilderland library is down, having dropped from 640,000 last year to 590,000 this year. The number of visits has also decreased, from 326,000 last year to 288,000 this year. This is typical of a trend that saw increased use of libraries in the depths of the Great Recession. “It sounds like a drop,” Nichols Randall said earlier of library use, unless you take a longer look back. “If you look at historical data,” she said, “we went way up in 2008 and 2009 as did libraries across the country. We hoped it was the new norm.” Rather, it turned out to be a temporary spike.

The three board candidates were asked about their backgrounds and reasons for running as well as their favorite books.

They were also asked their views on the role of a library in the Internet age and on what direction the Guilderland library should take at this juncture in light of last year’s bond defeat and declining use this year. The library’s 10-year, long-range plan expires this year.

Finally, the candidates were asked whether they supported the current $3.49 million budget, and why or why not, and their own goals in serving on the board.

Judith Kahn

GUILDERLAND — Judith Kahn says she was honored to be selected to fill a library board vacancy last October and has found the work to be both challenging and satisfying.

“I think a library is much more than a collection of books,” she said. “It’s a repository of resources…and people who facilitate residents’ acquisition of information.”

A library is still essential in the Internet age, because, she said, “Not everyone has a computer at home. And, if they do, it doesn’t mean they know how to use it to its greatest potential.”

Kahn herself never thought she’d stray from reading actual books but now finds she enjoys her Kindle and iPad, but still has a stack of books on her table.

Her “absolute favorite” book is Betty Smith’s novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which she first read when she was in the ninth grade, and identified with the protagonist, a girl growing up in a poor family.

When Kahn re-read the book four years ago, she saw it from the perspective of the mother “trying to raise a family in desperate times.” She finds value in a book that can speak to different parts of a person’s life.

Kahn, who grew up in Troy, earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Rochester, a master’s degree in education from Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass.; and a law degree from Albany Law School.

A practicing attorney, she currently handles a variety of pro bono cases, advising not-for-profits and advocating for people with disabilities.

Kahn moved to Guilderland in 1988 and said the library “has always been a central part of my life and my family’s life.”

She and her husband, William, have a son, Joshua, who is a freshman at Guilderland High School.

In 2003, Kahn was a founding member of the Guilderland Library Foundation and served on that board.

She said she wholeheartedly supports the proposed $3.49 million budget that was approved by all the trustees. “We listened to the voters when they voted against the large referendum,” she said. “We understand voters wouldn’t pay a tremendous increase. We still have a duty to provide services to meet the changing needs and technology needs of the community or we wouldn’t be of much use.”

Kahn says she has two goals as a library trustee that “go hand in hand.”

“I would like to get a greater proportion of residents involved in helping us re-define our long-range strategic plan,” she said. 

While people in the community have needs that can be filled by the library, she said, “Until we hear from them, we can’t address those needs.”

She went on, “Second, I really hope the library continues to grow…as Guilderland’s Gathering Place….It’s not just how big the building is.”

Kahn concluded, “It’s very important that the trustees take the role of fiduciary of the library very seriously. We understand this is precious tax money…We watch over it protectively.”