Friends

Wait…what?!

It’s true—with help from the Friends of the Kinderhook Memorial Library, we have purchased museum passes to a number of museums in Columbia County, the Capital District and western Massachusetts for patrons to use. You can now borrow museum passes for a one day loan and visit:

• The Berkshire Museum (admits 4 people)
• The Mount: Edith Wharton’s Estate and Gardens (admits 2 adults and all children)
• The Norman Rockwell Museum (admits 4 people)
• Mass/MoCA (admits 2 adults and 2 children)
• The Eric Carle Museum (admits 2 adults and up to 4 children)
• Hancock Shaker Village (admits 2 adults and 2 children)
• Schenectady Museum and Planetarium (admits 2 adults and all children)
• Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (2 adults and all children)

We are hoping to add a number of historic sites to this list, too. During our test run of this program during the summer of 2009 (with a much smaller selection of passes), the library saved our community over $700 in museum admission fees. This year to date, we have saved our community almost $1,200 in admission fees! That is MORE than what it cost us to purchase all the passes combined!

Ralph Gardner, Jr., part-time local resident and frequent contributor to New York Magazine, the New York Times, and the New York Observer, visited our library's book sale on Saturday and wrote his daily column in the Wall Street Journal about how library book sales feed his additiction to book collecting.  Even though Ralph was disappointed that his father's book on Horatio Alger had been deaccessioned from our library, it was touching to read that he understands the plight of a small library with limited space.  As the director of the library, I get to know my patrons in a limited way--it was refreshing to see another side of this patron that I didn't know about.

Ralph Gardner, Jr. is also the co-author of Hay Fever with Angela Miller, published by Wiley in April 2010.  Rest assured, the library is purchasing a copy.

You can read the article from the Wall Street Journal by clicking here.

We can’t turn the page on another Friends of the Library successful book sale without saying merci, gracias, danke, tak, grazie and do jeh to:

• Our hard-working, book-toting, friendly army of more than 45 volunteers…
• Our donors who set aside wonderful books for us to sell…
•  The ever-dedicated, Kinderhook Boy Scout Troop 113, leaders and their parents…
• The Kinderhook Garden Club and Samacotts for sturdy tents, so necessary to protect customers and books…
• Kinderhook Wine and Spirits for saving all those Franzia boxes for us (it’s true—we love those boxes!)…
• Our library trustees, dedicated staff and director Julie Johnson…
• And of course, our book-loving customers! This sale would not have been possible without you!

Just can't wait for our summer newsletter to hit your mailbox?  Here's a sneak preview! This issue contains information about our summer reading program and our fledgling museum pass program.  Start here when planning your summer activities!