Altamont Library Notes for Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Now that the older kids are back to school after a loooong vacation, our younger friends might be feeling a little left out. If so, bring them to story time!
Story time at the Altamont Free Library is a super fun program that combines some of our favorite things: awesome stories, silly songs, playful movement, and most importantly, bubbles! We host two story times every week, on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 10:30 a.m. on the dot, so if you can’t make it one day, maybe you can make it the other day! (We used to say that Tuesdays were for preschoolers and Wednesdays were for toddlers, but really we’re good with all ages.) Please join us, and bring a friend!
Vision Boarding with Ginger Hannah
Why not start your year off on a visionary note? Please join us on Thursday, Jan. 23 from 6 to 8 p.m. to create your very own vision board, with guidance from Altamont treasure Ginger Hannah.
A vision board is a visual representation of your goals and aspirations, and the process by which you create it — with drawings, cut out magazine pictures, and words — is a deep dive exploration of what truly matters to you and what you want your future to look like.
Please call the library at 518-861-7239 or email to register in advance. I hope we see you in our future!
I Love My Library Gala
The social event of the winter is only a few weeks away! The always anticipated annual I Love My Library! Gala is coming up on Saturday, Feb. 8 at the Community Room at Altamont Village Hall. Invitations will be in the mail soon and tickets will be available at the library this week.
If you haven’t attended in the past and are interested in receiving an invitation, please get in touch with us. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and we need your support. You’ll enjoy a fantastic dinner and homemade desserts, exciting live and silent auctions, and the delightful company of your fellow library supporters.
This year, we will be honoring the many contributions made to our community by Kristin Casey and Linda Cure, two longtime friends, board members, and volunteers whose dedicated service to our library and our Village are a shining example for us all. Please join us!
Tech assistance
Now that the holidays are behind us, many of us are left trying to figure out how the heck to use the new techno-goodies we’ve received. For everyone who takes to new technologies like a fish to water, there are five of us who are utterly befuddled by new devices.
But fear not, that’s what the library is here for. Whether it’s a new phone, laptop, tablet or eReader that won’t do what it’s supposed to do, we can (probably) help! Call the library at 518-861-7239 to book an appointment to sit down with a librarian for up to a half-hour and sort out your gizmo issues. And hey, if we can’t help you, it just means that you’re not alone in your confusion.
Fine freedom
At the beginning of 2019, we started an experiment: If we didn’t charge overdue fines for children’s books, would books suddenly stop coming back? As it turns out, just about every book we checked out came back more or less on time, or at least no later than they ever were before.
Even better, due to this policy we were able to forgive old overdue fines and allow children who had overdue fines before to return to the library as borrowers in good standing. All in all, the experiment has been a complete success! It’s been such a success, that we’re expanding the fine-free program in 2020 to Young Adult books!
From now on, no matter whether you’re a kid, a parent, a teacher, or anyone else, children’s and young-adult books checked out here (even if we have to get them from another library) will not accrue overdue fines. In addition, if you have existing overdue fines on an AFL youth card, we’ll clear them. Patrons with overdue children’s and young-adult books will still be notified through their normal channels, and after 28 days, the book will be considered lost and the borrower responsible for the cost of the item, but if it comes back after that, the fine will be cleared.
We hope that many of our friends take advantage of this experiment, so spread the word!