Altamont Library Notes for Wednesday, October 30, 2019

If you’re a library user, you’re probably used to certain things: A smiling face at the circulation desk, a helpful answer to any questions you might have, and a relatively quick turnaround time when you request things from other libraries.

While those first two are never in doubt, the third part has given us a bit of trouble recently. As background, you should know that all the libraries in Albany and Rensselaer counties (the Upper Hudson Library System) pay to have a courier service pick up and drop off books and movies that are headed to other libraries.

Well, last Wednesday, the company we’ve used for the past 12 years abruptly quit without notice. For nearly a week, requested materials couldn’t be delivered and items returned to a different library couldn’t make it back home.

The good news is that Upper Hudson has found a great new delivery service, and they’re getting up and running. Still, it may take a few more days before all of the pent up materials work their way through the system.

If you’ve had to wait a few extra days for something to become available, we sincerely regret the inconvenience. Thank you for your patience. And thanks also to the superheroes at UHLS for their extraordinary work in restoring this essential service as quickly as they did! 

“Book Thief”

Please join us the First Monday Book Club for a discussion of “The Book Thief” by Marcus Zusak on Monday, Nov. 4 at noon. This phenomenally popular young adult novel is set in in Germany during the Nazi era, and concerns the life of a young orphan girl as she discovers the power of books and writing. It’s an important book and our discussion should be a fascinating one. 

Election Day Bake Sale

Election Day is fast approaching, and whether you’re a Republican, a Democrat or an independent, we can all agree that homemade cookies, pies and bread make the world a little sweeter, so while you’re voting at Altamont Village Hall on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, be sure to stop by our annual AFL Bake Sale!

Since this election will be a smaller one, we’ll be keeping the bake sale on the smaller side this year. (Don’t worry: We’ll be back to our usual Election Day baked goods extravaganza in 2020!) The always phenomenal Mary Heidinger and Pat Spohr could use a few extra pairs of hands running the sale, so if you’ve got a spare hour or two on Election Day and you’d like to help, please let us know. All proceeds from the sale go to support the Altamont Free Library.

Hours change

Beginning in Nov. 1, Altamont Free Library will no longer be open from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. BUT! At the same time, we will be extending out Saturday hours from a three-hour 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. day to a six-hour 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. day!

We hope that people will find the longer hours on our busiest day of the week to be a positive and helpful change.

To our beloved Sunday users, we hope that you will be able to visit us another day, and that you understand that having a small staff keeping a small library open an incredible 58 hours per week (way more than any other library our size in the area) means having to make tough choices about which hours to be open. If you have any concerns, complaints, or questions, please let me know by calling me at 518-861-7239, or emailing me at . 

Homeschoolers 

Our community is home to many homeschoolers, and we want to know what we can do to help you! One program that we’ve been working on is a workshop on library skills for homeschoolers, which is a necessary element of many homeschooling curricula.

If you and your family would be interested in such a program, please get in touch with us at or by calling us at 518-861-7239. Let us know what you’d like such a class to cover, what times and days work best for you, and how old your students are. That information will help us develop our program. Thanks!