Thursday, April 3 from 10 – 11 AM | Register here

Learn about the new partnership between the Mid-Hudson Library System and The Tempestry Project [https://www.tempestryproject.com/]. We are on a mission to leverage the amazing fiber arts communities throughout our member libraries to recruit over 100 knitters across the Hudson Valley to help with a community art project to tell the story of our changing climate. The end result will be a traveling exhibit, like the one shown above, that can be hosted at your library. 

The complete collection will result in a full set of Tempestries spanning from 1895-2025 that will become a traveling exhibit you can host at your library! 

The Poughkeepsie Public Library District in partnership with MHLS and Revolucion Radio Online bring the Consulate on Wheels to the Mid-Hudson Library System Auditorium (105 Market Street, Poughkeepsie) Tuesday, April 8th through Saturday, April 12th.

The Consulate General of Mexico provides its Consulate on Wheels in places where it may be difficult to travel to the consular headquarters in the United States, so that they can process important documents, such as passports and consular IDs.

We encourage all member libraries to advertise this opportunity to their local communities. Access the image file to create posts or add to newsletters or print and cut out postcards to handout. All materials are in Spanish.

All sessions are by appointment only between the times of 9:00 am – 1:00 pm. Appointments can be made by calling MiConsulado 1-424-309-0009. Appointments typically open two weeks prior to the date of the Consulate on Wheels visit. For the upcoming visit to Poughkeepsie, appointments will open on March 24.

This year, the Mid-Hudson Library System (MHLS) is producing a series of events for library trustees and directors to help strengthen the financial future of your library.

This series is designed to meet directors and board members where they are, providing assistance for a range of developmental activities such as:

• Helping Association and Municipal Public Libraries to a pattern of annual votes;  
• Creating budget goals to address issues such as a living wage for staff, benefits, adequate funds for digital collections, programming or your facility
• Building an adequate reserve fund structure or
• Minimizing risk to your organization through adequate insurance coverage

All events for trustees count toward the NYS Trustee Education Requirement for 2025. 

MHLS Sustainable Funding Series: Sustainable Funding Options for Association & Municipal Public Libraries for Directors and Trustees | April 3 | 5 – 6:30 PM | Online | REGISTER

Association and Municipal Public Libraries must take annual action to secure sustainable funding for their libraries that grows to keep up with community demand for services, programs, and collections. Join Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, MHLS Executive Director and co-author of the New York State Library’s Public Library District Toolkit, to better understand your options for pursuing sustainable funding through voter-directed initiatives allowed under New York State Education Law 259. At this event we will review:

• Why it is important to seek an annual increase for the library
• The basic steps for holding a vote along municipal boundaries or school district boundaries
• Best practices for transparent financial reporting to your community
• Key messages for making the case to your community

This workshop is part of the MHLS Sustainable Funding & Trustee Education Series and is intended for MHLS member library trustees only. Attendance at this event can be applied toward the NYS Trustee Education Requirements.

New York State Public Officer’s Law §10 requires all public library trustees (but not association library trustees) to take and file an oath of office within 30 days of beginning their term of office. Public library trustees are public officers, and the oath of office is required to officially undertake and perform the duties of a public library trustee. If a public library trustee does not properly complete and file an oath of office, the trustee’s position may be deemed vacant. See Public Officer’s Law §30(1)(h). For more information about how and why the oath of office is administered, and where to properly file an oath of office, please see the Oaths of Office FAQ on the New York State Library website https://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/trustees/oath.htm