The past several years of New York State’s public and association library annual reports highlight some promising trends as libraries recover from the pandemic. COVID-19 hit libraries hard, negatively impacting nearly every measure of library success. [Read more…] about Data Shows Libraries Recovering From Pandemic, Extending Services
covid
A National Snapshot of United States Museums
The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) has released findings from the latest iteration of an annual survey assessing the current state of museums in the United States. Over 300 museum directors responded to this AAM survey on their organizations’ behalf, representing a broad cross-section of the field in geography, size, and discipline. [Read more…] about A National Snapshot of United States Museums
Report: Visits to History Organizations Rising Dramatically
The Public History Research Lab of the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) has issued it’s National Visitation Report. This report is the only national effort to analyze trends in visitation at history organizations of all types and sizes, all across the United States. [Read more…] about Report: Visits to History Organizations Rising Dramatically
A Short History of Spitting: TB, Influenza, Covid and Public Policy in New York City
On his tour of America Charles Dickens was disgusted by the “odious practices of chewing and expectorating” tobacco, a “filthy custom” that he had observed in both streets and public buildings. From courts of law to hospitals, spittoons could be seen where men were permitted to “spit incessantly” (American Notes, chapter VIII). [Read more…] about A Short History of Spitting: TB, Influenza, Covid and Public Policy in New York City
Did Covid Reshape Adirondack and NYS School Enrollments?
The answer appears to be not so much. School district enrollment trends in New York State have been consistent for the last few decades, and an assessment of enrollment numbers over the last five years doesn’t show a big or lasting change to these trends.
Here’s an analysis: [Read more…] about Did Covid Reshape Adirondack and NYS School Enrollments?
Poetry: Toward a Covid School of Poetry
Toward a Covid School of Poetry
Dante self-quarantined for the Black Death,
which killed his muse Beatrice, as well as
Francesco Petrarch’s muse Laura, inventing
modern poetry, even as it killed one-third
of Europe’s population. Folks fear bears
and mountain lions now, but lowly fleas,
rat-vectored, proved the executioners,
to become the world’s most deadly being.
Dear Museums: Host A Polling Site
This open letter to the museum community was written by New York State Assembly Member Danny O’Donnell, Chair of the NYS Assembly Committee on Tourism, Parks, Arts, and Sports Development and shared by the Museum Association of New York (MANY).
Across New York, museums serve as anchors as well as reflections of your communities. Your missions to connect individuals to culture, history, and information is deeply needed and commendable. [Read more…] about Dear Museums: Host A Polling Site
Bruce Dearstyne: Making Use of New York’s Usable Past
New York, the nation’s historically most important state, has a lot of history worth exploring and sharing more extensively. That history is particularly useful for perspective on current critical public issues.
Many of these are discussed in a historical vacuum, as if they have never been considered before. In fact they have, and history is a good place to start the discussion because it provides parallels, precedents, and perspectives. [Read more…] about Bruce Dearstyne: Making Use of New York’s Usable Past
Adirondack Gentrification: Resortification & Urbanization (Part 6)
Rural gentrification has appeared in almost every region, from Big Sky territory to the Rockies to Prairie Country to New England to the American South. Outside the United States, it has been documented in Spain, Turkey, Sweden, New Zealand, France, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Taiwan, and especially Britain.
While the details vary from place to place, most gentrifying rural communities suffer the same consequences: the displacement of the rural working class, the decline of available space for social reproduction, and the aging of the vestigial population. Yet if rural America is united in its symptoms, it is divided by its disease. [Read more…] about Adirondack Gentrification: Resortification & Urbanization (Part 6)
NY State Parks, Historic Sites Set Attendance Record
New York’s State parks, historic sites, campgrounds, and trails welcomed a record-setting 78 million visitors in 2020 according to the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, the state agency charged with the operation of New York State parks and historic sites
The milestone marks nine years of steady visitor growth and represents an overall increase of 34 percent, or more than 20 million visitors since 2011. [Read more…] about NY State Parks, Historic Sites Set Attendance Record