Altamont Library Notes for Thursday, May 7, 2020
— Photo from Joe Burke
Bessie, a life-sized cow statue bedecked in scarves the color of a rainbow, appears to be waiting for a train; the old village station is, of course, now home to the Altamont Free Library. Bessie “was dressed up in rainbow colors in the spirit of the #518rainbowhunt campaign,” says the library’s director, Joe Burke.
The Altamont Free Library remains closed indefinitely due to the coronavirus epidemic. We look forward to reopening as soon as it is safe to do so.
Ancetry.com from home
As many library users know, the Altamont Free Library (in addition to all the other libraries in Albany and Rensselaer) has for the past few years been able to provide our users with access to Ancestry.com and all of the historical and genealogical resources it contains, but only on the computers in the library itself.
Now, until the end of May, access to Ancestry.com has been temporarily expanded to library cardholders doing their research from home, courtesy of ProQuest and its partner Ancestry. Remote access will be available until the end of May and will be re-evaluated monthly as needed.
You can log on with your library card here: https://www.uhls.org/ancestry.htm. Thanks to the Upper Hudson Library System for working this out for us!
Hoopla
Need a new book, audiobook, or movie while the library is closed? We all do! That’s why we’re introducing a new digital service called Hoopla!
The Hoopla app can be downloaded onto any smart device, and gives you access to a tremendous catalog on e-book, digital audiobooks, streaming music, movies, and TV shows for free with your library card.
Even better, there’s never a waitlist for anything you check out! If you have a card from any of the libraries in Albany or Rensselaer counties, you can borrow up to five items a month. For more information, check out HooplaDigital.com or AltamontFreeLibrary.org and start streaming today.
If you’d like to use Hoopla or any of our other digital services, but can’t find your library card, send me an email at or call the library at 518-861-7239 and leave a message with your name and phone number, and I’ll get you your card number within the hour.
Video Story Times
There are dozens and dozens of things I miss about the library as I’m working from home for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, but the thing I probably miss more than anything else is getting to see our youngest library patrons every week at story time.
If you and your young ones have been missing weekly story times as much as we have, you’ll be glad to know that the library staff has been working on something to tide you over until we can see each other in person again. Head over YouTube.com and search for “Altamont Free Library.” There you’ll find video story times we’ve been putting together, with new ones appearing every Tuesday and Friday. You can also like us on Facebook and find them there.
Each new edition is chock full of stories, songs, crafts, movement activities, and bubbles presented by staff members Meg Seinberg-Hughes, Erika Peterson, Jo Ann Mulligan, Ann Gainer, and me! Please enjoy!
In addition to video story times, there are tons of other online resources you have access to with your library card. Go to https://www.altamontfreelibrary.org/online-services to find a full and constantly updated list.
Donations
Normally, the library staff would be very busy this past week in running our annual book sale. Unfortunately, the village-wide garage sale was cancelled for this year, and so the book sale was too.
All year long, we ask our friends to hold their book donations until this week, so that we can include them in the sale, but we’re going to have to ask you all to hold onto those donations for a little longer. We’re hoping that circumstances will allow us to hold a smaller book sale later on this year, once life goes back to something closer to normal.