GUILDERLAND — In addition to deciding on a $4 million library budget for next year, Guilderland school district residents will also be voting on three library trustees.

The unpaid posts carry five-year terms. The board has 11 members.

Three incumbents — Herb Hennings, Mark Keeling, and Phil Metzger — are running to keep their seats. They are being challenged by Marcia Alazraki and Richard Rubin.

Because of concerns about spreading the coronavirus, balloting will be entirely by mail this year. To be counted, ballots must be returned by 5 p.m. on June 9.

The Guilderland Public Library website carries this information, and more, supplied by the candidates.

Marcia Alazraki

Marcia Alazraki was brought up in a poor family in New York City.

“Purchasing books was not part of my family’s budget,” she said. “My library card was precious and books opened up the world to me and shaped my devotion to learning.”

Alazraki has lived in Guilderland for 52 years and loves the “hominess” of the library as well as “the wonderfully attentive and knowledgeable staff.”

A retired lawyer, she had worked as assistant counsel to New York’s governor and had a private practice for 35 years, advising clients on insurance regulatory matters and acquisition of insurance companies.

She is a volunteer for the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York and the secretary-treasurer for the Girls Inc. Board of Trustees Foundation Trust of Schenectady.

Herbert Hennings

Herbert Hennings, currently the vice president of the library’s board of trustees, has lobbied the legislature for increased funding for local libraries, both construction aid and general aid.

He is retired from his work as an insurance fund representative for the New York State Insurance Fund.

“I want to continue my work for the library and on the Board of the Upper Hudson Library System,” he says, as well as seeing through the construction project that will expand and update the library.

Hennings grew up on Long Island and has lived in Guilderland for 32 years where he serves on the planning board and is a committeeman for both the Guilderland and Albany County Democratic committees.

He is president of the Troy Area Labor Council and an executive board member of the Capital District Area Labor Federation.

Hennings wants to make the library “a true center of the community.”

Mark Keeling

Mark Keeling has been a trustee as the board moves to “a more virtual version of the library.”

He says, “It is important that the library remain fiscally responsible and at the same time provide robust resources for our community.”

 Keeling grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and served in the United States Army for 14 years. He moved to Guilderland in 2011.

He is vice president of a national insurance company.

“I feel the library has an important part in the community,” he says. “It is a place to gather, provide children’s programs, support community initiatives and in the current environment also provide virtual resources.”

Philip Metzger

Philip Metzger works as lead systems analyst for R.R. Donnelley, a communications company. He manages information technology projects, “finding efficiencies and alternative solutions to fulfill the print needs of businesses worldwide.”

“Having an inside connection to the world of libraries,” Metzger says, “I have become acutely aware of their importance in our society and I understand their needs and challenges in our current environment.”

He grew up on Long Island, lived in Texas, and moved to Guilderland seven years ago.

With another term on the board, he hopes to “support the library administration in setting goals that build a stronger community in Guilderland centered around our library, providing the services that drive even more people to take advantage of everything that the library offers.”

Richard Rubin

Richard Rubin, a medical doctor with a master’s degree in business administration, says that background will help in planning programs and building budgets.

He says he is “comfortable with institutional budgets and the challenges of maintaining services at a time of increasing costs and decreasing revenues.”

He has worked as a primary-care doctor, a clinical geriatrics physician, and as medical director of Medical Director of St. Mary’s Hospital in Troy.

Rubin grew up in Monticello, New York and has lived in Guilderland for 23 years.

He is on the board of directors for Daughters of Sarah Nursing Center and is in the Normanskill Strummers ukulele group.

“We have an amazing library, and I want to be part of making it even better,” he says.