ALTAMONT — The Little Library That Could has chugged to the top of the mountain, winning the Excellence in Historic Preservation Award — one of seven given statewide.

The bookends of educational careers were celebrated on May 27 as new teachers were honored for achieving tenure and retirees were lauded for shaping future generations.

One of our favorite essays is Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance,” which contains this nugget: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”

No doubt enjoyed by little newspaper editors, too.

Guilderland has about 120 special-needs students eligible for Medicaid reimbursement but only half signed up so the district could get reimbursed for services.

Lillian Lorraine Yonally loved the freedom of flying and, now in her 90s, has fond and vivid recollections of the pilots — all women — she trained and flew with during World War II.

For the first time in eight years, there is a race for trustee as the public library, in the wake of a resounding defeat to expand, plans to map its future.

GUILDERLAND — “I think we’re in an important transition in the library,” said Robert Feller. “We just had a bond vote go down,” he said of the 2012 defeat for expansion. “We have to think about what that means in our long-term plan.”

GUILDERLAND — Barbara Fraterrigo, the board’s longest serving member, believes, “It’s nice to have an old hand on the board, someone who knows the history.”

GUILDERLAND — Currently the library board’s treasurer, Carroll Lynn Valachovic believes her financial expertise is an asset to the other trustees.

GUILDERLAND — “Libraries have always been very, very important to me,” said Carolyn Williams, who is making her first run for the board.