Reggie Harris’s “Freedom Songs and the Civil Rights Movement” is a 90-minute event that will be held via Zoom next Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. 

Harris sings ‘freedom songs’

Reggie Harris will give a music and civil rights performance on April 21, hosted by seven libraries in the Mohawk Valley Library System.

Director Amy Powarzynski had worked at the Westerlo library for nearly 10 years before her promotion. 

Guilderland library trustees voted unanimously to reopen the library — as coronavirus restrictions allow — while construction is underway for an $8 million upgrade. The director will present a reopening plan at the board’s next meeting, on Sept. 17.

As coronavirus cases continue to climb in Albany County and vital services are shut down in response, children and seniors in the Hilltowns are vulnerable not only to the virus, but to hunger. To remedy this, the Berne Youth Council, Berne Library, and Berne-Knox-Westerlo School District are working together to deliver meals and groceries to these at-risk populations.

GUILDERLAND — In recent years, Congressman Paul Tonko has, through the Library of Congress Surplus Books Program, distributed books locally to an English class at Berne-Knox-Westerlo, to the historic library in Rensselaerville — with titles ranging from “American Wino” to “On Edge” — and to the Voorheesville Public Library where he rea

Villagers with long memories gathered at the Altamont Free Library last Friday night, on the eve of the village’s first Founders Day, to share memories and swap stories.

Michael Marcantonio’s wife works for the library and, as a trustee, Marcantonio was involved in contract negotiations with the union for library staff. Although another trustee said this was an ethical violation, the library board’s lawyer and president along with Marcantonio all say it wasn’t a legal conflict of interest.

The Upper Hudson Library System received a little over $1 million in state funding, which was distributed to libraries such as those in Voorheesville, Guilderland, Westerlo, and Rensselaerville.

“I was looking forward to being back in a small town … ,” Debbie Scott said of starting as the new director of the Westerlo Public Library. “I was looking forward to serving a community and a public library.”

Joseph Heyman, Ph.D., a retired scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, told a young boy, “In your lifetime, son, amazing things are going to happen that you never even dreamt of.”