Altamont Library Notes for Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Last week, the first-graders of Altamont Elementary School made the long journey on foot from school to the library for their annual visit. For 41 of those students, not only did they get a tour of the library and an opportunity to meet Shelly the Sea Turtle, our Summer Reading Program mascot, but they also received their first library cards!

First-grade field trip day is always my favorite day of the year here, since I get to see the joy and pride that kids experience when they get a library card of their own. For a lot of kids, a library card is the first thing they own that works just the same for them as it does for their parents and older siblings.

It has both the same power and carries the same responsibilities and isn’t a downsized, kid-ified version of what they see their parents use. The fact that the first-graders get to share the experience of getting their first library card with their friends and classmates at the end of the school year with summer on the horizon makes it all the more special.

So welcome to the library, first-graders. Adventures await you all!

Summer Concerts

The Altamont Free Library Summer Concert Series in Orsini Park is back!

Our concert organizer, Lori McCutcheon, has put together six Tuesdays of great music, kicking off on Tuesday, July 5, and running through Tuesday, Aug. 9. (We’re hoping for fewer almost-rainouts than we had last year.)

All concerts begin at 7 p.m., and are supported in part by the village of Altamont, as well as by donations to the Altamont Free Library. Stay tuned for more information about our lineup of awesome musicians in the coming weeks. We couldn’t be more excited to see you all out in our beautiful park for some great music and great neighbors.

Story Time

in Orsini Park

Speaking of Orsini Park, story time in the park is back! Every Tuesday at 11 a.m. (please note the new time!), gather your young ones and join Miss Ann out for some super-fun stories, songs, and activities.

In order to keep things safe and socially distant, we’re going to be spreading out on the lawn in our summer home, Orsini Park! If you’ve never visited us before, Orsini Park shares a parking lot with the library, so it’s easy to find.

Please bring a blanket and/or a lawn chair for you and your young people to sit on. In the event of rain, story time will have to be canceled for the week unfortunately, so be sure to check our Facebook page for updates. We’ll see you in the park!  

Planning

The Altamont Free Library is planning for the future and we need your help! Every three years, the trustees of the Altamont Free Library create a new Long Range Plan of Service, and this year is one of those years.

Over the course of the next few months, we will ask our community to give us feedback in a variety of ways. We might pop in at your seniors’ luncheon, or set up a table at your baseball game, or ask you a few questions while you’re at one of our summer concerts.

The way we get most of our information though is through an online survey. In order to better serve you and our community, please take our short 5- to 7-minute survey to let us know whether you use the library, how you use it, and what we can do better for you in the future. You can find it at https://tinyurl.com/AFL-Survey or through a link on our Facebook page or our website. We are so grateful for your time and your ideas!

Every House Project

We’ve had so much interest in the Every House Project that we launched a few weeks ago! People have been submitting their house histories and it’s been fascinating to learn about the houses all around us.

If you’d like to participate in the Every House Project and help us collect the history of all of the homes in Altamont and the surrounding area, check out the Every House Project Facebook group or learn more on our website at AltamontFreeLibrary.org.