Altamont Library Notes for Tuesday, December 15, 2020
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Library Lights: As darkness fell on Friday evening, a small crowd gathered at the gazebo in Orsini Park next to the Altamont Free Library at the center of the village. Names of friends, of family members, of pets were read as the people who loved them had paid for a light in their honor to support the library. And then — ta-da! — the darkness subsided as the lights in the gazebo, centered by a Christmas tree, brightened the night.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Library Lights: As darkness fell on Friday evening, a small crowd gathered at the gazebo in Orsini Park next to the Altamont Free Library at the center of the village. Names of friends, of family members, of pets were read as the people who loved them had paid for a light in their honor to support the library. And then — ta-da! — the darkness subsided as the lights in the gazebo, centered by a Christmas tree, brightened the night.
Last week, the Altamont Free Library celebrated our 22nd annual Library Lights gazebo lighting ceremony in Orsini Park. The purpose of Library Lights is to take some time at the beginning of the holiday season to remember friends, family members, and other loved ones and to honor their memory with a light on the Orsini Park gazebo
This year, we had a near record number of honorees, whose names were read aloud at the ceremony. Thank you to all of our friends who contributed to our effort, and to those of you who joined us in Orsini Park last Friday.
A full list of this year’s honorees may be found on our website at AltamontFreeLibrary.org.
I’d especially like to thank Mayor Dineen, Jeff Moller, Larry Adams, and the team at the Village Department of Public Works for all of their invaluable help in making a space in the park for us and setting up the lights, as well as to Dan Capuano, Paul Scilipoti, and Yvette Terplak for helping with the reading of names. Thank you all!
Holiday hours
Please note that Altamont Free Library will be closing at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 24 and closed on Wednesday, Dec. 25. Looking further ahead, we’ll also be closing at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 31 and closed on Friday, Jan. 1. Happy Holidays to all!
Amazon Smile
Here’s a great, easy, cost-free way to support the library: If you do some of your holiday shopping on Amazon, please consider going to Smile.Amazon.com (instead of just regular old Amazon.com).
Everything on the website will be exactly the same as usual, but you’ll have the opportunity to choose Altamont Free Library as your charity of choice and a portion of your purchase will go to support the Altamont Free Library, even though your gifts won’t cost you a penny more than they normally would! (You can do that all year round, if you like, but we just thought we’d mention it now.)
Grab & Go
Due to the worsening COVID situation, we are halting in-person browsing and temporarily going back to an all-Grab & Go service model. But that’s OK! Grab & Go is still pretty great! Here’s how it works:
— Hours of operation for pick-up and drop-off will be 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday;
— Reserve books and DVD’s at http://www.catalog.uhls.org anytime or by calling us at 518- 861-7239;
— When your items are ready, a library staff member will call you with a time you to make an appointment for you to pick them up so that we can be sure to have everything ready for you when you get here and to control the flow of foot traffic in and out of the vestibule;
— Your order will be waiting on a table in the library’s vestibule in a paper bag with your name on it. Please follow the directions you will see posted about “traffic flow” and social distancing;
— At this time, the library building and its restroom will remain closed to the public. Printing, faxing and photocopying services are available by appointment;
— Returns can be dropped off in the marked boxes in the library’s vestibule during business hours or in out outside dropbox when we’re closed;
— Returned items will be quarantined at the library for at least 72 hours before they are able to be checked in and recirculated; and
— Library users must maintain social distance and wear masks while picking up and dropping off library materials.
If you have any questions, please give us a call at 518-861-7239. See you soon!