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New York State Library News & Events
January 2025
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Connect with Knowledge You Trust!
- The New York Culture and History Lecture Series is provided by the Research Library. Share this with your community!
- DHPSNY provides Preservation Practices for Every Library, a service available to cultural institutions around the state to support the preservation of community history.
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Resource Highlight: Public Library District Toolkit | |
Since the publication of the “Public Library District Toolkit: Strategies to Assure Your Library’s Legal and Financial Stability” in February 2022, it has become a heavily used resource by both the public library systems, member libraries and New York State Library Development staff. This online publication is designed to assist library leaders, including library directors, trustees, and other stakeholders, in understanding a public library’s current governance structure and the various options available in New York State for assuring a stable legal and financial future for their libraries.
With nearly 10,000 page views since its publication, the Public Library District Toolkit has become an essential resource for all New York State libraries.
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New York Culture and History Lecture Series | |
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Brooklynites Book Talk
Date: Thursday, January 23, 2025
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
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Meet the Black Brooklynites who defined New York City’s most populous borough through their search for social justice. Before it was a borough, Brooklyn was our nation’s third largest city. Its free Black community attracted people from all walks of life—businesswomen, church leaders, laborers, and writers—who sought to grow their city in a radical anti-slavery vision.
In this book talk, Dr. Prithi Kanakamedala (Professor of History, Bronx Community College and CUNY Graduate Center) will discuss her first full-length book. Brooklynites (NYU Press, 2024) is a cultural and social history as told through four ordinary families from Brooklyn’s nineteenth-century free Black community. Their lives offer valuable lessons on freedom, democracy, and family—both the ones we’re born with and the ones we choose. Their powerful stories continue to resonate today, as borough residents fill the streets in search of a more just city.
Prithi Kanakamedala is a Professor of History at Bronx Community College CUNY. She is also a faculty member in the M.A. in Liberal Studies Program at CUNY Graduate Center. Prithi is an active public historian based in New York City. Brooklynites: the Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough (NYU Press, 2024) is her first full-length book.
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Under Alien Skies: Environment, Suffering, and the Defeat of the British Military in Revolutionary America
Date: Thursday, January 30, 2025
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
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The Revolutionary War is often celebrated as marking the birth of American republicanism, liberty, and representative democracy. Yet for the tens of thousands of British and Hessian troops sent 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to wage war under alien skies, such a progressive picture, as Vaughn Scribner reveals, could not have been further from the truth. In Under Alien Skies, Scribner illustrates how foreign soldiers' negative perceptions of the American environment merged with harsh wartime realities to elicit considerable physical, mental, and emotional anguish. Whether trudging through alligator-infested swamps, nursing a comrade back to health in a rain-sodden tent, or digging trenches in a burned-out port city, most who fought in America under the British army's flag ultimately deemed themselves strangers fighting in a strange land. For them, Revolutionary America looked nothing like the "happy land . . . blessed with every climate" that Revolutionary republicans so successfully promoted. Instead, the War of Independence descended into a quagmire of anxiety, destruction, and distress at the hands of the American environment—a "Diabolical Country," as one British soldier opined, "which no Earthly Compensation can put me in Charity with."
Vaughn Scribner is an Associate Professor of British American history at the University of Central Arkansas. In addition to Under Alien Skies, he is also the author of two other books, Inn Civility: Urban Taverns and Early American Civil Society (NYU Press, 2019) and Merpeople: A Human History (Reaktion Books, 2020). He is currently working on a biography of America's first celebrity con man, "Lord" Timothy Dexter of Newburyport, MA.
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Regent Joseph E. Bowman, Jr. Research Library Tour
Date: Tuesday, February 4, 2025
Time: 3:30pm - 4:30pm
| The New York State Library invites NYLA Pre-Advocacy Day attendees to join us for a behind-the-scenes tour of our Regent Joseph E. Bowman, Jr. Research Library. Get a back of the house look at our 20 million items, meet State Library staff, and learn more about how the State Library supports libraries and researchers across the state. The tour will conclude with a special exhibit of fascinating items from our Manuscripts and Special Collections relating to New York’s history. | |
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The Grand Canal: Celebrating the Erie Canal's Bicentennial
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm
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The Erie Canal is one of the most important transportation routes in American history. When the canal opened in 1825 its effects on New York and the United States were immediate. In 2025 communities across the state will celebrate the bicentennial of the Erie Canal with special events, programs, festivals, and more. In this webinar you will learn about:
- Erie Canal history and its impacts on the growth of New York State and the nation
- An overview of events happening to celebrate the Erie Canal's bicentennial in 2025
- Resources available to engage youth and families in learning about the Erie Canal
- Suggestions for canal themed programs or performances you could host in your community or at your library
Patrick Stenshorn is the Education Program Manager for the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor. He works with teachers and cultural organizations to develop K-12 resources about New York State's canals. He also manages a small grants program called Ticket to Ride which supports school field trips to canal related sites and museums. Patrick has a B.A. in history from SUNY Geneseo and a M.A. in American History from SUNY Brockport. He has previously held positions as an educator at Women's Rights National Historical Park and the Albany Institute of History & Art.
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HBCU: The Power of Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Date: Thursday, February 13, 2025
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
| Join Marybeth Gasman and Levon Esters for an engaging presentation and discussion of their book HBCU: The Power of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024). Explore the vital role of HBCUs in fostering educational equity, empowering Black excellence, and driving social change. Through powerful stories and research, the authors illuminate these institutions' enduring legacy and transformative impact on individuals and communities. | |
Preservation Practices for Every Library | |
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DHPSNY Workshops and Webinars
Date: January 28, 29, 30, 31, February 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6
Time: Varies
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DHPSNY offers a variety of educational programs and services to qualifying New York institutions. Presented free of charge throughout the state, DHPSNY’s programs address the needs of professionals and volunteers responsible for the care and handling of historical records. DHPSNY’s workshops and webinars discuss emerging issues and best practices, with content scaled to apply to small- and medium-sized organizations with limited resources.
The following program(s) will be offered this month:
DHPSNY is a service provided by the NYS Library and NYS Archives to support preservation practices at New York's cultural institutions.
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Regents Advisory Council on Libraries Welcomes New Members for 2025 |
Please join the NYS Library in welcoming three new members to the Regents Advisory Council on Libraries (RAC).
New members Danielle Berchtold, Hope Dunbar, and Reanna Esmail begin their work in January 2025.
Visit the NYS Library blog to get to know our new RAC members!
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NYS Library Programming and Outreach Intern |
The NYS Library’s Division of Library Development seeks to fill an internship opportunity for Spring 2025. This position is open to matriculated graduate students.
The Graduate Student Intern will coordinate weekly family-friendly Library programming onsite at the Cultural Education Center. The Intern will also support the Division of Library Development's Outreach and Statewide Services teams, providing assistance on statewide initiatives on a range of topics including digital equity, library accessibility, and DEI.
View more information about the Programming and Outreach Internship.
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