Tag: Albany Public Library

National Library Week 2026: Find Your Joy

APL survey

Since it’s National Library Week 2026, I am required by my vows as a Master of Library Science to celebrate. Find your joy!

ITEM: Albany city residents go to the polls on Tuesday, May 19, to vote on the library’s 2026-2027 operating budget tax levy. Voters will also elect three new library trustees. Note that the poll locations may vary from the primary and general election locations. 

ITEM: Albany Public Library is currently developing a Strategic Plan with the help of Library Strategies to guide its priorities over the next three years. In order to craft this long-range roadmap, the Library must determine what residents need, want, and expect from their libraries – now and into the future. For that reason, this survey was developed to collect your valuable input.

On average, it takes just 8-10 minutes to complete the survey. The information you provide will help the Library and its consultants scope and prioritize areas of focus that maximize the Library’s return on investment. You will remain anonymous unless you actively choose to self-identify.

ALA

ITEM: From the American Library Association-

This month, ALA prevailed in our lawsuit against the government to protect the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The settlement, alongside our co-plaintiff AFSCME and represented by Democracy Forward, ensures that the only federal agency dedicated to library services will continue to carry out its critical work.

ALA has been showing up for libraries on fronts beyond the IMLS lawsuit and Fund Libraries campaign:

NYSWI

ITEM: Join New York State Writers Institute on Wednesday, April 22, at 4:30 p.m. at Page Hall, UAlbany for a conversation with Heidi Boghosian, lawyer, podcast host, writer, and surveillance and privacy expert, and the author of Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy (2025), which argues that our best chance of thriving in the digital era lies in taking care of our “smart” selves as diligently as we maintain our “smart” devices.

​She will also discuss the looming challenges to democracy posed by AI and other emerging technologies.

Boghosian is executive director of the A.J. Muste Foundation for Peace and Justice, a charitable organization providing support to activist organizations, and the former executive director of the National Lawyers Guild.

FFAPL

ITEM: The Friends of Albany Public Library and, later, the Friends and Foundation of Albany Public Library, have sponsored free Tuesday Book Talks almost every week of the year at the Washington Avenue branch at 2 pm. 

April 21 | Book Review | The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics by Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, & Mark Olshaker.  Reviewer:  Bryon Backenson, Director, Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, NYS Dept. of Health.

​April 28 | Author Talk | David Ricci, from the Berkshires, discusses & reads from his book of photographs, Hunter Gatherer: Salvaged Stories of American Culture, with text by Cheryl Finley.

​May 5 | Author Talk | Jessica Treadway, Albany native & child patron of the Pine Hills Branch, discusses & reads from her short story collection, I Felt My Life with Both My Hands.

May 12 | Book Review | The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Book Lover’s Adventures by Josh Hanagarne.  Reviewer:  John Edvalson, APL librarian.

May 19| Book Review | The Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller.  Reviewer:  Charles Hailer, Empire State Fellow with the NYS Urban Development Corporation.

May 26 | Book Review | The Fear and the Fury: Bernie Goetz, the Reagan ‘80s, and the Rebirth of White Rage by Heather Ann Thompson.  Reviewer: James Collins, PhD, Prof. emeritus, Anthropology Dept, Program in Linguistics & Cognitive Science, U at Albany, SUNY.

Photos

ITEM: Locally, the show of FFAPL treasurer David Brickman, Neighborhood Abstracts, has been extended through mid-May at McGreevy ProLab and ProPress in Albany (link here for hours and address). 

And David and McGreevy are producing a 30-page book of the show, with all the pictures and a little bit of text. The book will be available in two sizes: 8″x8″ signed, limited-edition softcover ($35, tax included, shipping extra if needed; limited to 40 numbered copies plus 10 artist proofs); and deluxe 12″x12″ hardcover ($100 plus tax and shipping if needed). Write to David: dbgetvisual[at]gmail[dot]com 

Three Trustees for the APL Board to be chosen May 19

I will be reviewing Mona’s Eyes by Thomas Schlesser April 14

ITEM, from here: Albany voters will select three trustees for the APL Board of Trustees in the Tuesday, May 19, election. Two positions carry full five-year terms, while the third (partial) term is for one year.

Albany residents interested in running for a seat on the board need to complete and submit nominating petitions. The petitions, eligibility information, and instructions are posted on the Library Budget page, and paper copies are available at all seven APL branches.

Trustee nominating petitions, with at least 65 signatures of qualified voters, are due to the Clerk of the City School District of Albany (1 Academy Park) by 5 pm on Wednesday, April 29. Trustee candidate names are announced after the school district validates the submitted nominating petitions.

The library’s trustee election and budget vote share a ballot with the city school district vote, which also takes place on May 19. Note that the locations may differ from the primary and general election sites.

The library is hosting a second Trustee Candidate Information Session (the first was on March 12):

At the information session, current trustees will be on hand to answer questions about how to get on the ballot, tips for a successful campaign, and what it’s like to serve as a library trustee.

You can also view an informational presentation online.

APL Budget Vote

“Albany city residents will also vote on the library’s 2026-2027 operating budget tax levy… The budget plan was approved by the library’s Board of Trustees at its March 10 meeting.

“The proposed 2026-2027 operating tax levy of $9,661,856 would result in an increase of $42.58 for the owner of a home assessed at $250,000. The spending plan represents a 17% increase in the annual total operating budget tax levy.

“’Our main goal is securing adequate funding for the library and everything that it provides to our community,’ said Board President Sarah Macinski. ‘This increase addresses the impact of some expenses that have spiked in recent years, like health benefits and utilities, while ensuring we have enough reserve funds to maintain branch facilities and be grant-eligible for future renovations.'”

Honestly, I believe part of the cause of the larger-than-usual request this year was that, during more than one year in the 2010s, the trustees chose not to ask for an increase. This meant the previous year’s budget was automatically passed even as expenses went up. 

Diverse viewpoints

ITEM: From the Times Union (likely behind a paywall)

NY Regents to vote on library rules, including support for ‘diverse viewpoints.’

“All public libraries need to set specific policies on how new materials are selected and how people can object, the state librarian told the Board of Regents Monday [3/9]…

“State librarian Lauren Moore emphasized that each library Board of Trustees can write its own policies. But they must support the concept of selecting ‘diverse viewpoints,’ she said.

“Library directors should take care to buy materials on viewpoints they themselves disagree with, rather than only choosing materials with ideas they support, she added.

“They must also set rules for public use of meeting rooms, which must also be available to groups from a diverse set of viewpoints, she said.”

The Regents did indeed pass the new rules. (Thanks to TU reporter Kathleen Moore for helping me find this.) Most larger libraries likely have such policies in place, but it may be an issue at smaller ones.

Indeed, Albany Public Library does have both a ​Materials Selection Policy​ and a​ Material Reconsideration Request Form​. The reconsideration request form includes an option to object to a library program.

Book reviews and author talks (including me!)

Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Avenue, Tuesdays at 2 pm in the large auditorium

April 7 | Author Interview | David Sylvestor, local writer & instructor, will be asked about his 2024 Erie Canal crime novel, Hung Be the Heavens with Scarlet, by poet Therese L. Broderick, MFA.
April 14 | Book Review | Mona’s Eyes, a novel by the French art historian Thomas Schlesser.  Reviewer:  Roger Green, MLS, business librarian retired from the NY Small Business Development Center.
April 21 | Book Review | The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics by Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, & Mark Olshaker.  Reviewer:  Bryon Backenson, Director, Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, NYS Dept. of Health.
April 28 | Author Talk | David Ricci, from the Berkshires, discusses & reads from his book of photographs, Hunter Gatherer: Salvaged Stories of American Culture, with text by Cheryl Finley.

Calendar post: November 2025, et al.

Underground Railroad Education Center

I love my little calendar post. I’ll probably do one of these monthly, if only so I can keep it straight in my own mind. My choir has been rehearsing quite a bit for the December 14 concert. I suppose I should read the tome before my book review. 

ITEM: Marathon public reading of Legs by William Kennedy. Noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5. Albany Distilling Co. Bar, 75 Livingston Avenue, Albany, NY 12207 518-949-2472

Want to join the reading? Readers are asked to sign up and select a time slot by Friday, Oct. 31. Just want to listen? No registration is needed to attend. The event is free and open to the public. Drop in anytime from noon to 8 p.m. 

Support a good cause: Donations will be collected at the door to benefit the food pantry and free meal outreach at Sacred Heart Church in Albany, Kennedy’s childhood parish.

The event is the third in a series of public readings of Kennedy’s novels. We read Ironweed in 2023 and Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game in 2024. (I participated in both, and will again this year.)

ITEM: Roselee Blooston, who will be speaking at APL in December, provided this info about her new book, Including the Periphery: 

Main Street Magazine’s author profile, which you can read HERE. She was also included in  Chronogram’s “5 Hudson Valley Books to Read in September.” She will be at:

The Ballad of the Brown King

ITEM:  There will be a concert on Sunday, December 14, at 3 pm at First Presbyterian Church, 362 State Street (corner of Willett) in Albany. The FPC choir will perform in partnership with the Festival Celebration Choir. It will feature a chamber string orchestra (plus harp). Half of the concert will feature carol settings by Alice Parker, including her Seven Carols for Christmas. The second half will feature the cantata The Ballad of the Brown King by Margaret Bonds, one of the most significant black woman composers of the 20th century, with lyrics by Langston Hughes.

ITEM: Connections That Feed Hope – FOCUS Churches Breakfast Club. Donate if you can.

ITEM: Stand with the Underground Railroad Education Center as a sponsor or attendee of the upcoming Arias in the Afternoon: Lifting Every Voice on December 14, 2025, from 1 to 3 pm, at the New York State Museum. Arias in the Afternoon brings Handel’s Messiah together with the Smithsonian’s Voices and Votes exhibit for a powerful experience combining music, history, and inspiration.

ITEM: The current Art at APL exhibit — “Sight Specific” — is on view at the Pine Hills Branch until Nov. 8.

The exhibit is curated by Opalka Gallery and funded by the Friends & Foundation of APL, with additional support in 2025 from the Arts Thrive and Grow grant through The Arts Center of the Capital Region.

Stay tuned for information about the next Art at APL exhibit — “Countenance: The Contemporary Portrait” — which will debut on Dec. 5.

Another book review (moi)

ITEM: Events at the Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Avenue, on Tuesdays at 2 pm in the large auditorium.

October 28 | Special Program: Andrea Nicolay, Executive Director of APL, will discuss APL and Current Events.

November 4 | Author Talk | Peter Balint, retired international businessman and former US Army officer, discusses and reads from his memoir, The Shoe in the Danube: The Immigrant Experience of a Holocaust Survivor.

November 11 | Author Talk: Ryane McAuliffe Straus, formerly professor of political science at St. Rose College and now an Empire State Fellow, discusses and reads from her book Divided by Choice: How Charter Schools Diminish Democracy.

November 18 |Book Review | On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder.  Reviewer:  Mark Lowery, retired from NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

November 25| Book Review | Everything is Tuberculosis:  The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green.  Reviewer:  Roger Green, business librarian retired from the NY Small Business Development Center.  (Not related to John.)
ITEM: Remember to make a plan to vote and take advantage of Early Voting if you can! 
In New York State:
Saturday, October 25 – Sunday, November 2, 2025
Saturday & Sunday: 9:00AM – 5:00PM
Monday & Wednesday: Noon – 8:00PM
Tuesday, Thursday & Friday: 9:00AM – 5:00PM

 

Early Voting Locations for 2025 in Albany County 
You may vote at ANY of the following sites during Early Voting only:

Bethlehem Lutheran Church (Parish Hall) 
85 Elm Ave., Delmar, NY 12054 

Albany County Board of Elections
St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church
Boght Community Fire District
Pine Grove United Methodist Church
East Berne Volunteer Fire Company
Guilderland Public Library
Scams

ITEM: 🚨REPOST PSA🚨

The Albany Police Department’s Center and South stations have received numerous calls regarding scams. Please remember:

The scammers may:
🚨Claim you owe money.
🚨May identify themselves as an officer of APD demanding arrest if you do not pay the amount owed.
🚨Demand payments through gift cards.

Just a reminder:
🚨APD will not call you and demand payment over the phone.
🚨APD will not ask for personal financial information over the phone.
🚨Do not provide any personal information over the phone

If you receive a suspicious call, hang up and report it to the police.

A week in the life for July 2025

money for college

Here’s a week in the life for July 2025. Some were referred to before the fact here. The last time was not. 

Friday, July 4: Lavada Nahon, culinary historian and interpreter of African American history with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, spoke at the Underground Railroad Education Center, 194 Livingston Avenue in Albany. “She has a wealth of experience interpreting the lives of free and enslaved African Americans across the mid-Atlantic region, with an emphasis on the work of enslaved cooks in the homes of the elite class.”

She spoke powerfully about New York State’s Investment in the Institution of Enslavement and Its Legacy Today. Northerners seem to buy the myth that slavery was only a Southern thing, but enslavement existed in New York State until 1827. Frederick Douglass’s famous What To The Slave Is the Fourth of July in 1852 was only a quarter century later.

(Sidebar: I need to write about one of my ancestors who may have been enslaved in New York before 1810, just north of  New York City, per the Northeast Slavery Records Index (NESRI), a “searchable compilation of records that identify individual enslaved persons and enslavers in the states of New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey.) 

Also, my church had raised $10,000 for the planned UREC Interpretive Center. The proposed Center has taken a hit with money allocated by the IMLS suddenly terminated.

Songs of Freedom

Sunday, July 6: My family had never been to Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville, about 45 minutes north of Albany. As a part of the buildup to the Albany Symphony concert that evening, the UREC singers performed Songs of Freedom at the Pavilion. I didn’t mention that I was one of the singers; my wife was also recruited. Some of us had rehearsed a week before.

Some songs were from George Washington Clark’s The Liberty Minstrel, a “collection of songs and poetry written in the mid-19th century addressing the themes of slavery and the yearning for freedom.” It seemed to have been well received.

But it was really hot and muggy, and my family left before the ASO performance.

Frederick Douglass

Tuesday, July 8: Jack Hanrahan discussed his history/travel book, Traveling Freedom’s Road: Frederick Douglass in Maryland at the 161 Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library. He was very informative and engaging. 

Jack also described his 2022 book, Traveling Freedom’s Road: A Guide to Exploring Our Civil Rights History. “In 2018, [he] and his wife Lisa took a lengthy car trip to the South. They visited big cities and small towns where civil rights history was made decades ago. The trip changed them.” While initially focusing on several Southern States, he expanded the book to most of the country. 

He’s now working on books about Frederick Douglass in New England, and in New York in the next two years.

Money for college

Wednesday July 9th: My wife and daughter, with my input, have been working on a letter to send to our daughter’s college. The college has offered us far less for this upcoming semester than what they had given us in previous years.

They believe that we are lot more well off. That’s in part because I had taken out several thousand dollars from my retirement 401K to help finance my daughter’s semester abroad to the University of Cape Town, South Africa.  This shows up as income on an IRS statement, but in fact I am merely taking money from my extant resource.

The appeals process trying to convey this messsage mechanically involved making a bunch of PDFs and then trying to upload it to the college. It didn’t “take” on Monday, so this was a redo.

Unfortunately, the computers of my wife and daughter are lacking upload capabilities. So they had to purloin my computer for several hours over the two days. My own machine also has upload limitations – I can’t upload Windows 11, which I need to do before October – but I had enough capacity so they could eventually get those documents to the college.

We hope that our appeal is successful, but we do have a Hail Mary Plan B.

Weird random thing

In the past week, two strangers, separately, walked up to me and said how much they like my sunglasses. They fit over my regular glasses. I have had  prescription sunglasses, but they’ve never worked for me, even the ones that change. for a few minutes, they are too dark when I walk indoors and not dark enough when I go outdoors.

These sunglasses I bought for three bucks at Lodge’s, a downtown department store founded around the end of the Civil War. I  should see if they have more.

Eclipsed (theater); ASO

Art at APL

Even though we complain about being too busy, my wife and I had three events in three evenings.

Thursday, June 5: Eclipsed is the third program this season from the Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate NY, after Berta, Berta, and Once On This Island. 

The description: “‘Eclipsed’ tells the story of five Liberian women and their tale of survival near the end of the Second Liberian Civil War.

“Their lives set on a nightmarish detour by civil war, the captive wives of a Liberian rebel officer form a hardscrabble sisterhood. With the arrival of a new girl who can read—and the return of an old one who can kill—their possibilities are quickly transformed.” It was excellent, but very intense, and occasionally quite funny. Here is a review from the Berkshire Edge.

I was unfamiliar with the Danai Gurira play, which played on Broadway about a decade ago. Here’s a New York Times review from  a 2016 production featuring Lupita Nyong’o.

From here: “Danai got the idea for Eclipsed from a 2003 magazine article featuring a female rebel solider named Black Diamond. The influence from that article, Danai’s own African upbringing, and her research in Liberia helped her to shed a light on enormities that are still issues today.”

I’m looking forward to next season from BTTUNY at the Cap Rep building.

Art

Friday, June 6: The Albany Public Library and Opalka Gallery celebrate the latest Art at APL exhibition, “Sight Specific.” The opening that night at the Pine Hills branch of the APL featured The Pine Hills Band.

“The artists in ‘Sight Specific’ are not directly mapping a place, but employing memory, direct observation, documentation, comparison, or abstraction, to tell stories of familiar places like gas stations, rest areas, basketball courts, backyards, living rooms, landscapes, industrial sites, or neighborhood streets… 

“The exhibition features Michael Bach, Seth Butler, Matt Chinian, Sean Hemmerle, Susan Hoffer, Maeve McCool, Rob O’Neil, Andrew Pellettieri, and Laura Von Rosk.” It’ll be in place through November 8. 

I went by myself because my wife had a work thing.

Symphony

Saturday, June 6: Last year, my wife and I attended almost the entire American Music Festival of the Albany Symphony Orchestra at EMPAC. Indeed, on Thursday night, we were invited to attend the open rehearsal, but we chose to attend the play instead. 

This year, we only attended the American Music Festival, which had the theme of Water Music. It started with What do flowers do at night? by Sophia Jani. A cactus species called the Selenicereus grandiflorus blooms only once a year for one night.

Then  Play: A Concerto For Percussion Quartet, Vocalist & Orchestra by Clarice Assad, which was just wack. The percussionists played glockenspiel, marimba, xylophone, toy drums, bells, rubber chickens, and many other instruments. It was excellent, lots of fun, and semi-autobiographical.   

From here: “Indigo Heaven is a clarinet concerto in all but name, laid out in three movements running 27 minutes. The work is inspired by the open Western vistas described in Mark Warren’s novel of the same title.” It premiered with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, composed by Christopher Theofanidis, commissioned for the CSO’s principal clarinet, Stephen Williamson, who also played it at the ASO.  

Bobby Ge’s Beyond Anthropocene was commissioned, premiered, and recorded by David Alan Miller and the ASO. The final movement is solastalgia, which is defined as “the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment.” It was a workout, especially for the horns.

Ramblin' with Roger
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