Altamont Library Notes for Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Librarians are known for many things: Their ability to put together an entire children’s story time in the drop of a hat, their fantastic taste in cardigans and sensible footwear, and their boundless intolerance for dog-earing book pages are just a few examples.

Being loud is not one of those things. We are a quiet people for the most part.

Except, that is, when it comes to advocating on behalf of library funding. When we do that, we can get ear-splittingly loud.

This coming Tuesday, Feb. 28, is the New York Library Association’s annual Library Advocacy Day. Library lovers from all over New York State will gather at the capitol in Albany to let our elected representatives hear from us!

Hundreds of library professionals and patrons from Buffalo to Montauk will travel to Albany to make sure that every community in our big, diverse state has a well-funded, safe, accessible library with materials and technology for library users of every age and interest.

We are lucky in the Capital District to have elected representatives who get it. We’d like to make a special shoutout to two of our favorites:

— Senator Neil Breslin, who is new to us since the recent redistricting, but who has been in the State Senate for a while and has earned a reputation over his tenure as being a champion for the libraries in his district; and

— Assemblymember Pat Fahy, who has been a fierce advocate for us and a constant presence at our library, like when she completed a one-day tour of all of the many libraries in her district as part of the 2019 Upper Hudson Library System Library Expedition.

Thanks to both of them for taking time out of their busy schedules to meet with us. If you have a few minutes to spare, please consider calling or writing to your New York State assembly member and senator to let them know what your library means to you.

We only have a few weeks to be heard while the state budget is being prepared to make sure that libraries aren’t left behind. After all, even though we only gather at the capitol once a year, every day is Library Advocacy Day! 

Value Line

Database

Libraries love sharing, and our friends at the Guilderland Public Library are better at it than most.

You probably already know that you can use your Altamont Free Library card at Guilderland or any of the other libraries in Albany or Rensselaer Counties, and that, if there’s something you’re looking for that we don’t own, we can almost always find a copy of it at one of the other libraries in the Upper Hudson Library System.

What you maybe didn’t know is that the Guilderland Public Library is always very considerate about sharing its considerable online resources with AFL users! (And why not? We’re in the same town and serve different parts of the same wonderful community!)

For instance, GPL has recently started subscribing to Value Line, a very powerful tool for researching financial information, and analyzing stocks and other investments. Normally online databases like that are shared only with a library’s own users, but GPL has been kind and conscientious enough to allow AFL cardholders access too!

You can find links to Value Line and all kinds of other online tools and databases (Creativebug arts-and-craft video classes are a favorite of mine!) on GPL’s website at guilderlandlibrary.org/learning-tools and log on using your AFL or GPL library card.

If you’d like to learn more about using Value Line, why not register for one of the classes the GPL will be holding on Feb. 28 and March 28?

Many, many thanks to our GPL buddies for being so kind and considerate. We couldn’t ask for a better neighbor!