History, Natural History & the Arts
SUNY Broome’s Culinary & Event Center has won a 2021 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award from the Preservation League of NYS.
The Beaux Arts-style Carnegie Library opened in downtown Binghamton in 1904 and was home to the city’s library for 96 years. The building remained vacant from 2000-2016, falling into a state of disrepair. [Read more…] about SUNY Broome Culinary Center Wins Historic Preservation Award
On September 23rd, 1952, the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Rotary and the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Women’s Club met at a combined meeting to establish the Library Association which would spearhead fund raisers and begin the process of building a library from the bottom up.
Among other fundraising, the Library Association went door to door soliciting people to come to their homes for breakfast on a particular day — and the invited guests would then be charged for their breakfast. [Read more…] about Ballston Community Library: A Short History
The Margaret Reaney Memorial Library is a fixture in the Erie Canal-side community of St. Johnsville, Montgomery County, NY. The Library contains a museum which features a wide array of art in a very fine collection.
An outdoor sculpture display in the north garden is listed in the Library’s catalog as “Nude Female and Lion” by Roland Hinton Perry. The bronze was cast in 1898 by Jno. Williams, Inc. foundry which was located on West 26th Street in Manhattan. [Read more…] about St. Johnsville’s Lion in Love Sculpture: A Piece of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Upstate
Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
A new children’s book, The Efficient, Inventive (Often Annoying) Melvil Dewey (Calkins Creek, 2020) by Alexis O’Neill and illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham, is a colorful biography about the creator and implementer of the Dewey Decimal Classification system, who had a significant and lasting impact in libraries but ended his career in disgrace for his racist and sexist views. [Read more…] about Melvil Dewey: Efficient, Inventive, Annoyingly Bigoted
The State Education Department has awarded $34 million in state aid to 232 public libraries statewide to support construction and renovation projects.
These funds help libraries construct new buildings, create additions, update electrical wiring and computer technology, improve broadband infrastructure, meet energy efficiency standards, renovate facilities to provide full accessibility to library users with disabilities, and provide meeting spaces to accommodate community needs. [Read more…] about $34M in State Aid Awarded To Public Libraries for Construction, Renovations
State Librarian Bernard A. Margolis, 69, died early Saturday, April 14th, after an eight-year battle with acute myeloid leukemia. His wife of 45 years, Amanda Batey, and close friends were by his side.
Margolis, known as Bernie, began serving as New York State Librarian and Assistant Commissioner for Libraries in January 2009, following appointment by then Governor Eliot Spitzer. [Read more…] about NYS Librarian Bernie Margolis Has Passed
On November 19, 2016 at 2 pm, celebrate 25 years of the Grems-Doolittle Library and Archives at the Schenectady County Historical Society, 32 Washington Avenue.
Former Schenectady County Historical Society trustee Frank Taormina will give a presentation on the history of the library and there will be a selection of library and archival items showcasing 350 years of Schenectady’s history. Refreshments will also be served. [Read more…] about Schenectady Historical Library Celebrating 25 Years
This week on “The Historians” podcast Bob Cudmore and Dave Greene discuss two of Bob’s recent Daily Gazette columns. One is on the life of Monsignor William Browne, who founded Amsterdam’s St. Mary’s Hospital and the other is a history of the Amsterdam Free Library. You can listen to the podcast here. [Read more…] about Montgomery Co: St. Mary’s Hospital, Amsterdam Free Library
In mid-October, I marked my first anniversary as the “local history librarian” at the White Plains Public Library. Four years earlier, I was a library clerk at an urban public library trying to figure out how to make a job out of my seemingly varied interests. I liked direct service, helping people, but I also valued more solitary, research driven work. I knew Intellectual freedom and a progressive, supportive community were a necessary part of any job I might hold, but I did not want to obtain a PhD or set out on my own for the wilds of self-employment. I knew I loved education, but I didn’t want to be a teacher. So the world has another librarian.
Through a friend, I began working at Albany Public Library as a Library Clerk and found the public library united my passions for working with people and knowledge in a democratic, autonomous space. Librarians can be educators without being constricted by the bureaucracy that comes with teaching. Librarians can also be historians, but don’t have to work within the traditional academic or museum systems, where publishing requirements or institutional obligations can take up lots of time. Attracted as I am to intellectual autonomy and the propagation of alternative historical voices, working as a local history librarian looked like a perfect opportunity to see if I could manifest some of these values. [Read more…] about My First Year As A Local History Librarian
Hotels, bars, a lighthouse and a windmill are just some of the sites in New York State that have been declared Literary Landmarks by United for Libraries (formerly known as Friends of Libraries USA). The literary landmark program began in 1986 to encourage the dedication of historic literary sites.
The first literary landmark to be designated in New York was The Algonquin Hotel in 1996, home of the legendary Algonquin Roundtable There are currently 15 landmarks in New York State with two more planned in the near future. The Wilder Homestead in Malone, NY was made famous by Laura Ingalls Wilder in her book Farmer Boy will be dedicated this summer and The Robert Louis Stevenson Cottage in Saranac Lake , NY will receive its designation this fall. [Read more…] about Does Your Community Have A Literary Landmark?