A New Year at the Grems-Doolittle Library

Okay, it is a new year at the Grems-Doolittle library and we are going to start approaching our blog from a totally different perspective than we have been doing previously. Our last few entries have provided you with detailed information about some of our favorite and most important collections. However, in our rush to get this information out to you we never really explained to you who we are and what we do on a more basic level.

The Grems-Doolittle library is the library and archive for the Schenectady County Historical Society. Our collections incorporate a wide variety of materials, including handwritten documents from the early days of Schenectady, modern books and dvds, photographs, glass slides, yearbooks, maps, city directories and all manner of newspaper articles and documents. The main theme that covers our entire collection is Schenectady County, and our collections are all connected to the county, whether they were compiled by local people or are about local people and businesses. But after that common theme, their topics and themes vary widely.

We primarily exist as a research library and none of our materials can be borrowed, but that does not mean we are not open to the public. We welcome researchers with all forms of queries, and our library materials are particularly good when it comes to genealogical research.

That covers briefly what we are, but who are we? The library staff includes a full time librarian, Katherine Chansky and  a part time library assistant, Heather Cunningham. But we also have a troop of library volunteers who help us to keep on top of research requests and also to keep the library organized and the archival materials accessible. Without the volunteers I doubt we would get very much done. One of the major projects we are currently working on is digitizing our records onto a database, meaning our card catalog of books, all our documents, maps and cds, as well as our photographs would be only a click away.

If you are interested in volunteering, or just learning more about the library please contact us for more information. You can find us on the web at www.shist.org and you can also find us facebook. And obviously keep reading our blog for more information about daily happenings at Grems-Doolittle.