Special Populations

The Mid-Hudson Library System provides coordinated outreach library services to our member libraries to reach those most in need and who often are not typical library users.

  • Target populations include persons who are: 
    • Educationally disadvantaged  
    • Members of ethnic or minority groups in need of special library services,  
    • Unemployed and in need of job placement assistance 
    • Living in areas underserved by a library 
    • Blind, physically disabled, have developmental or learning disabilities 
    • Aged or confined in institutions  
    • At-risk youth from birth to age twenty-one 

New York State Education Law, §273 (1) (h) (1)

Correctional Facilities

Funds are made available to public library systems through a State-aided partnership between the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) and the New York State Library to provide the system’s services to the correctional facility’s library and incarcerated individuals.

  • Correctional Facilities in the MHLS service area:
    • Coxsackie Correctional Facility 
    • Fishkill Correctional Facility 
    • Greene Correctional Facility 
    • Green Haven Correctional Facility 
    • Hudson Correctional Facility 
  • Reentry Guides

County Jails

New York State Education Law §285 (2) designates funds to make a public library system’s services available to the incarcerated individuals in that region’s county jails.

  • County Jails in the MHLS service area:
    • Columbia County Jail
    • Dutchess County Jail
    • Greene County Jail
    • Putnam County Jail
    • Ulster County Jail

New York State Education Law §285 State aid for cooperation with correctional facilities

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