So it’s being a hot, hot summer… unsurprisingly! EVERY year now is among the ten hottest years ever recorded, and it keeps getting worse.
*During heat waves the counties and other agencies often announce lists of “cooling stations,” where people can go for some relief before the dangerous heat makes them ill. Very often, these cooling stations are our public libraries.
*This makes sense – apart from the mall, the library is about the only place you can just “drop in” without charge – plus, there are books, magazines, computers and puzzles to occupy you, AND things to occupy the kids. If you want to check materials out, a card in any of the 49 Southern Tier System libraries works in just about any of the others. I wrote about this four years ago, and I decided it was time to update.
*Not every library is air conditioned, so you shouldn’t just make that assumption. Also, Dormann Library in Bath has been without A/C for a couple of months while the entire system is being replaced (they’re almost finished!). The system at Taylor Library in Hammondsport broke down for a while. But nearly all of the libraries I’ve been in (which is quite a few) ARE air conditioned.
*Sad to say, there are fewer sites, and fewer weekend hours, available now compared to four years ago.
*The smaller libraries and reading rooms are only open a limited number of hours per week, and some libraries (even large ones) close altogether for summer weekends. I understand their situation. In an institution dependent on volunteer workers, summer in the Finger Lakes makes scheduling almost impossible. (COVID doesn’t help, especially when you realize that many volunteers are older people.)
*ALL of the Chemung County libraries, sad to say, are closed for summer weekends. So are Bolivar, Richburg, and Genesee, in Allegany County, plus Montour Falls in Schuyler. Addison, Arkport, Atlanta, and Wayland, all in Steuben, each close for both Saturday and Sunday.
*But what about the other libraries in our Southern Tier Library System? My wife Joyce is a professional at Dormann Library in Bath, and she helped me assemble a list. But it’s always possible that some of information is not up-to-date, so CHECK FIRST before making a trip!
*Alfred is open on Sundays but not on Saturdays. This sounds familiar to me, coming from southeastern New England. That stretch of the country, like Alfred, is historic Seventh-Day Baptist territory. I speculate that that history underlies the unusual scheduling. As far as I can tell, Alfred is the ONLY library that still has Sunday hours.
*Andover is open the first Saturday of each month.
*Let’s look now at the every-summer-Saturday-but-never-summer-Sunday roster by counties. They vary from two hours of operation up to six – usually three or four.
*ALLEGANY: Almond; Angelica; Belfast; Belmont; Canaseraga; Cuba; Fillmore; Friendship; Rushford; Scio; Wellsville; and Whitesville.
*YATES: Branchport; Penn Yan; Dundee; Middlesex; Rushville. (Every one – hooray!)
*SCHUYLER: Watkins Glen and Odessa. Hector I’m not sure about.
*STEUBEN: Avoca; Bath; Canisteo; Cohocton; Corning; Hammondsport; Hornell; Howard; Jasper; Prattsburgh; Pulteney; Savona. I wasn’t able to locate information on Greenwood Reading Center.
*Some of these libraries (or their settings) have special features BESIDES air conditioning. Bath (Dormann Library) has its own cafe, so you can keep cool with smoothies. Hammondsport (Taylor Memorial) has its own lovely park with shade trees and a gazebo, and it’s only a few steps down to the Keuka Lake waterfront. Branchport (Modeste Bedient) is at the other end of the lake, and has its own nature preserve right outside. Pulteney also has a Keuka view. Hornell, Penn Yan, and Andover are Carnegie libraries.
*Down the hall from the Watkins Glen Library is the International Motor Racing Research Archive, where there’s almost always a classic racing car on exhibit. Angelica is in a lovely small-village setting, with a Saturday outdoor farmers’ market down the street in the Circle.
*There are also open libraries just over the edge of Southern Tier Library System territory in Dansville, in Naples, and in Wellsboro, PA (Green Free Library – they DO have Sunday hours!). Right next door in Wellsboro is Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center, where exhibits are always free admission.
*Remember that libraries, especially the smaller ones, are not necessarily open “full time.” On the other hand, most of them have evening hours at least once a week. That’s worth remembering – even those libraries that do NOT have summer weekend hours, DO have hours DURING the week, when the heat also might get dangerous.
*So keep cool, and be cool. Even on weekends, if only for a few hours, the library waits.