Altamont Library Notes for Wednesday, December 29, 2021
At the end of a long hard year, here’s some great news: For the fourth time in the past five years and the third year in a row, the Altamont Free Library has been named a Library Journal Star Library!
Library Journal is the most prominent trade publication in the library world. Each year LJ publishes a list of the best performing libraries for each of nine funding levels. Performance is determined by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the federal agency that oversees museums and libraries in the United States.
Thousands of libraries nationwide were of sufficient size and stature to be eligible for consideration as Star Libraries and over a thousand share our funding tier. IMLS scores are determined by a number of factors, including per-capita circulation, visits, computer use, Wi-Fi sessions, and other factors based on the statistics reported in our New York State annual report.
In each funding tier, the libraries with the 30 highest scores are named as Star Libraries, the top 10 receiving five stars, the next 10 receiving four, etc. The Altamont Free Library was named a three-star library this year, as we were last year. We were, in fact, the 29th best performing library with a budget between $100,000 and $200,000! In the whole country! Woo-hoo!
This is just about the highest honor that a library can realistically aspire to, and we have only received this acknowledgement because of all the hard work done by our incredible staff and board of trustees.
More than anyone else, though, we have earned this acknowledgement because of you. All of you borrowers and story-timers, Wi-Fi users and movie browsers, and all who love and use our library. You are all stars, every single one of you. Thank you all!
Holiday hours
Please note that Altamont Free Library will be closing at 2 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 31 and closed on Saturday, Jan. 1. On behalf of the staff and Board, I wish you all a Happy New Year!
Story time
on pause
In sadder news, given the recent increase in the spread of new COVID strains, we have decided to put a pause on in-person storytimes at Altamont Reformed Church for the time being. We will continue to review public health conditions over the coming weeks, and will be very happy to bring them back as soon as we safely can.
In the meantime, please get vaccinated if you are able, get a booster if you haven’t yet, keep wearing those masks, and making safe, healthy choices to help stop the spread.
Book club!
With the onset of cooler weather, we’ve had to migrate our book club meetings to the digital realm. If you would like to join us for our next meeting, please us at 518-861-7239 or email us at and we’ll make sure that you get the Zoom meeting connection details for our next meeting on at noon on Monday, Jan. 3.
At that meeting, we’ll be discussing the short non-fiction book “Freedom” by Sebastian Junger. Call today to reserve your copy and join us!