Please state your name, educational and/or experiential background and what your current title and job description is.
My name is Laurie Dreyer and I am the Branch Manager and Outreach Coordinator for the Troy Public Library. I graduated with a Masters in Library Science and Information from UAlbany back in 2016. But I’ve been working in libraries for a lot longer than that – I first started at a public archive in 2010 where I learned about historical records and archives and I fell in love with the old-timey, paper-based information and keeping it preserved. Then I started working at the check out desk in the Library part of the public library and I learned how much better it was to be able to pass that information along to folks who had a need for it. I became an ‘information distribution coordinator’ and here I am 14 years later, loving every minute of it.
After working the last few months to get our Lansingburgh Branch Library reopened after a flood in December, I spend much of my day looking at calendars and plotting ideas for crafts and programs, buying books, and brainstorming what local organizations and businesses we can work with. The whole idea is to get the word out that the Library isn’t just books, we have loads of events, services and resources that are available to everyone.
Can you tell us a bit about the history of the Troy library? Architecturally it’s so steampunk, always thinking about Jules Vernes ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea‘ when I am in the stacks…
Mary Hart had the Main library built back in 1897, when books were rare and expensive and needed protection. But the Troy Public Library was started as an organization in 1799, nearly a hundred years before the Hart Building existed and was nomadic, moving between locations like Librarian’s personal residences for many decades. The Lansingburgh Academy building wasn’t even around at that point, having been initially built in 1821 and used as the Lansingburgh Academy for many years until the Library took over the building in 1997. I’m so glad that we have been able to maintain these two important historical buildings while still innovating with the modern city that Troy is becoming. You can read the whole history of the Library, its beginnings and its buildings on our website HERE.
As a young man, the library where I was growing up had an important impact on me. Can you share your thoughts on the current role of libraries in our communities and why they are so important?
As we see an increase in divisive politics and sketchy news stories, public Libraries are more important than ever. The importance of having a place where we know that the facts have been checked by professionals and each item added has gone through multiple rounds of consideration cannot be overstated. In a world of manufactured outrage, it is vital that each community have at least one source of consistency and accuracy. We strive to be that for our community. We have books and they aren’t going away – despite what some folks think – but we also have digital resources like ebooks, streaming audiobooks, music, movies, and TV shows. We have databases that are geared toward kids, toward those who wish to check financial markets, for people researching art, people working on mechanical repairs, and so much more.
If you come into the Library’s buildings, you will find that we have free wifi and computers for folks to use and you can access even more databases, like Ancestry.com, inside the Library. Looking for a job? We have software that you can use that will create a fully formatted resume and cover letter for you. We also lend passes to local museums, have snowshoes on loan for the winter, and blood pressure monitors to keep track of your health. We regularly partner with other local organizations like Capital Roots, The Troy Senior Center, The Sanctuary for Independent Media and so many more to host programs and events and to help promote the services that each of them offers. I really like to think of us as a community connector – we find the information or entity and we tell everybody how to contact them!
I see a lot of interesting kids programming listed on the website. Can you share any best practices on how to get kids engaged into the library world of things?
We have a really active children’s department which is always doing something super fun. A few highlights are our Monday Family Game nights and our upcoming Summer Reading events. For Game Nights, we have a huge selection of family board games at the Main Library, so you can really choose anything you want to play. It’s a great way to test out games that you and your family might be interested in playing or owning. For Summer Reading, we are going to have raptors and reptiles in the library, we are going to be hosting the very fun Whalemobile and Big Truck Day.
Research has shown that kids are excited about reading already, so it’s really up to parents and us librarians to make sure kids understand what they can get at the library. We have tried to make it easy for kids of all ages to get a library card with our MyCard program where kids between 5-17 can come into the library and get a card without an ID or any of the address verification stuff that we make adults give us. I think it is super important for kids to know that we librarians are never going to judge them on what they read, so they can come in and get whatever books they want to read. If they want to sit in the Library and read, that’s fine. We also have a therapy dog, Greta, who comes in on Saturdays and kids can read to her.
Can you tell us a bit about funding sources for a program like yours? Some granularity in this answer would be appreciated and super informative to our audience.
As our Director likes to say, “public is in the name so that means there are no secrets”. As far as bureaucratic entities go, our funding structure is pretty uncomplicated. We are a special district library, which means that the state of NY established the City of Troy as a ‘district’ for the Library back in 2010. So now, we have a budget election every September and we publish a detailed proposed budget so that the people of Troy can make an informed decision.
We do end up using a good deal of our budget toward building upkeep and maintenance, which is what happens when you have two historic buildings that are open to the public. We have an active Friends of the Library group who help us fund specific projects and events, though they rarely can help with capital projects. We are always looking for people willing to bequeath us funding or, as recently happened, to offer a matching grant. As a historically underfunded organization, the Library certainly does what it can with the budget we have. We have been lucky that folks in our administration and on our Board of Trustees are talented grant writers who have really been instrumental in keeping our buildings open.
What are some of the current challenges you are facing?
Right now, we are looking for funds to get the Lansingburgh Branch’s Children’s Room back up and running since our insurance claim has been twice denied by the insurance company. We all find this situation pretty disheartening, as our children’s
room was very popular and allowed families to come to the library and sit and read with their children. It was a wonderful meeting place for things like our story hour and other kids programs. And now we have kids coming into the Library who want to be able to play and read and feel comfortable in a space where their parents don’t have to pay to simply sit and spend time with their kiddos.
It has been a difficult few months without that space.
Finally, open question…anything you would like to plug coming up that folks should know about? Don’t be bashful…
We are working on a lot of fun stuff for this summer – Teen Video Gaming, Big Truck Day, Quilt Making kits for adults – and Summer Reading. It is free and open to everyone AND you can win fun prizes just for reading!
What we really want to do is to hear from our community about what we are doing well and where we can improve. We have launched a community survey that is going to be up until July 15. Anyone can fill it out, even if you do not live in the City of Troy. It takes about 5 minutes to complete online: HERE. This survey is a HUGE help to us since it helps us prioritize our services and see what more our community needs from us. We hope you’ll consider filling it out.
If nothing else, though, let me just encourage you to stop by the Library and say ‘HI!’ We love having visitors and you don’t even have to buy anything!