The Grems-Doolittle Library, How to Get Involved

The Grems-Doolittle Library, as part of the Schenectady County Historical Society (a non- profit corporation, unaffiliated with Schenectady City or County). As a non-profit we do need help, and are not too shy to ask. There are many ways you can become involved with the Grems-Doolittle Library and help preserve the history of Schenectady County.

1.       TIME- We are always looking for volunteers, whether you are only able to commit weekly or monthly, or not sure if you want to commit at all, there are always plenty of projects for volunteers at the Library. We have tasks for a range of skill levels from photocopying and re-shelving books, to conducting research and organizing collections. We would appreciate and welcome your help.

2.       RESEARCH- If you are not free to volunteer at the Library, but you have conducted historical research relating to Schenectady County, whether it be on the history of your house,  the genealogy of your family, or a paper on local history, we would be interested in possibly adding your research to our library collection, providing future researchers with as much information as possible relating to the County.

3.       MATERIALS- If you have documents or books pertaining to Schenectady County, we are open to donations. People bring us old family scrapbooks, letters, certificates, yearbooks, etc. and we are grateful for an addition to the collection. No donation is too small. We do ask though, if you are considering making a donation, particularly if it is larger than a box of materials, that you do call ahead and schedule a meeting to discuss your potential donation. It is always good for us to talk about a collection, who collected it, identify people in pictures as ways of better understanding the nature of material.  (We will not always take every document offered to us and we don’t usually accept duplicates of material we already have or materials which are in poor condition.)

4.       THINGS- The library is always accepting new materials, which means we are also always in needs of basic office supplies for their protection and organization. We use a large quantity of archival quality boxes and folders. We also have a wish list of expensive items, such as a larger flatbed scanner for scanning early documents (which are often oversized) or video equipment to assist in our oral history collecting.

5.       DONATIONS- As part of a non-profit organization, the Grems-Doolittle Library is also always open to monetary donations. Donations can be given to Society operations, specifically to the library or directed at a particular project, such as the conservation of a document or map, or the maintenance of a collection.