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PV Library to Celebrate 70 Years of Uses & Users
by Edward Paul Greiff
The Putnam Valley Library will be celebrating its 70th anniversary this coming Sunday between 2 and 7pm with a party for one and all.
"It's a party! We ain't just books!" is the way it's being promoted with promises to feature music, food, awards, stand-up comedy, anniversary cake, local author Fran Capo, and Sassy the Clown.
The Library has grown over the past 70 years from a small collection of donated books in Rhea Kimberley Johnson's summer kitchen in 1929 to a sophisticated, technologically advanced member of the Mid Hudson Library system in the 21st century. Yet with all of its new uses and users, the library has continued to maintain its friendly and inviting country charm. You can still observe people reading books and sitting on the benches outside the library by the massive rhododendrons and tall trees. They are lulled into a state of relaxation as they listen to the soothing sound of the Oscawana stream waters passing adjacent to the building (you have to cross the stream via a bridge in order to enter the Library).
On Sunday, September 30, 2007 the Putnam Valley Library staff and its Board of Trustees will celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the library and its Charter issued on July 30, 1937 by the Board of Regents of the New York State Education Department with an awards ceremony honoring Karin Greenfield-Sanders with the Virginia Connolly Community Service Award. Along with that award Don Graesser will be honored with the Volunteer Library Service Award and the Harriet E. Gair Community Spirit Award will be presented to the Putnam Valley Town Day Committee: Ed Hertzel, Debbie Petranchik, Sue Rosenbeck, Thea Moeller, Kathy Colonna, Anne Spoonhour, Ragnar Pedersen, Rich Chizzik, Sheryl Keating, Louie Luongo, Dawn Powell, Virginia Capodieci, Larry Cobb, and Lon Zupan.
How people use the library and what they use it for and what services are offered by the Putnam Valley Library has changed dramatically over the years. The Library is exponentially growing in its technical offerings as technology rapidly expands. Taking out books and doing research are still basic library functions but the question is now what type of book medium to take out and what database to research. Books are available in hardcover and paperback but they are also available on cassette tape, VHS Tape, CDs, DVDs, and soon will probably be HD-DVD.
If the types of books seem overwhelming, that's nothing compared to the myriad of research databases now available through the Internet. There's a periodical database, a newspaper database and access to a full year's worth of articles published in The New York Times.
The full content of Chilton's Auto Repair Manual including diagrams is available online. "Price It" is a database that contains antiques and other collectables. One of the more remarkable services available is "Rosetta Stone" an online database where you can learn nine different languages.
If you have a Putnam Valley Library Card you can access all of these databases from home.
If you have a laptop computer and it has wireless capability and you have an email address, you can access the library's wireless service.
This all may be exciting for the technically literate but it's "The staff that's the face of the library," says Pat Vandevelde. The staff helps make the library a warm friendly place to visit and receive help from a human being, not an automated machine.
The Community Room, with its fully-equipped kitchen, reflects that human touch. In addition to being used in the past as a Senior Center, County and State officials use the facility to meet with their constituents and discuss issues that are of interest. Assemblywoman Sandy Galef holds her Town meetings in the Community room.
There are Halloween parties, Gingerbread Houses, Story Times, Movies and much more that the library is currently used for, and the list keeps growing. After 70 years the Putnam Valley Library is more vigorous now than it has ever been. The public is urged to visit the library - especially if they haven't been there for a while and join in the Anniversary Celebration on Sunday.
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