Organization: Keene Valley Library Association
Mission: Operating a public library for the benefit of Keene Valley, Essex County, New York
Activities: Keene Valley Library is a small rural library in the heart of the Adirondacks. Our library has two program services - Library Services and Archives Services.LIBRARY SERVICES PROGRAM: The Library Services staff consists of the Library Director and four part-time employees. We have 1,606 registered borrowers, both residents and nonresidents, adults and juveniles, who made 13,603 visits in 2015. We are open three days a week for ten months a year and six days a week during July and August. There are 18,368 items in our collection, and we borrow extensively through interlibrary loans from the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System and other libraries in the region. We circulated 8,554 items in 2015 and offered access to 19 databases and downloadable audiobooks through the Library System. Patrons can borrow audiobooks and ebooks through a download program. We also serve as the library for the local school, adding another 1800 visits each year. We participate in the New York State Summer Reading Program. Internet service is available during library hours on five public access terminals and individual patrons' laptops, tablets and smartphones. We had 145 programs during the year including eight summer lectures about art, local history, natural history and other topics of interest to the community. We offer book discussions, host a meditation group as a well as a Robotics club. Various lectures and readings are also given during the year. We have just completed a three month renovation project. We stabilized the foundation of our 130 year old building, insulated the building, installed a new boiler and put in radiant heat in two rooms. The children's room has been completely redone. Our patrons are delighted with the upgrade.
ARCHIVES SERVICES PROGRAM: The Archives are located in the Library building and are staffed by a part-time employee, with help from volunteers. The Archives preserve local history and archival material relating to the Town of Keene, the Library, and other local institutions. For 30 years, an archivist has received and organized files, photographs, books and documents about the families and institutions of the community. Over 6,000 photographs have been organized and stored in archival boxes. Interviews with men and women of the community, many of whom are now deceased, have been taped and preserved, recording life in the early 20th century. Currently the tapes are being digitized to preserve them in a more permanent manner. Documents and newspaper articles relating to local families are maintained, and people come to our Archives from all over the United States, either to research their own families or to search for stories about the numerous writers, philosophers and artists who spent time in the Town of Keene. The archivist works both to preserve what is already in the Archives and to add items which will be history in the future. Seventy one people visited the Archives in 2015. Material from our archives was used in researching a book on the Goldman-Sachs family and other material was contributed to a local exhibit on Doc Goff, an iconic figure in the earlier history of our town.
NTEE category: Education
Secondary category: Arts, Culture & Humanities