How libraries became rural community hubs
On a Thursday morning in August, the AuSable Forks Free Library is a hive of activity. A weekly coffee and conversation club is set up near the front window, a dozen or so children are pressing leaves into clay in the new Makerspace/Kidspace in the basement, and a pair of giggling preschoolers are making a beeline to the children’s reading room.
“We’re not a quiet library,” notes Librarian Sue Anne Walton-Godlewski, as the children brush past her. “If they’re having fun and learning, I don’t stop them.”
There are books here, too, of course, but today’s libraries are so much more than repositories of the written word. Across the Adirondack region, libraries have become de facto community centers — places to gather, learn, work, and create.
The Makerspace/Kidspace, launched in 2023 with support from a Generous Acts grant, is stocked with sewing machines, craft supplies, a 3-D printer, video conference equipment, and more.
In addition to programs for all ages, the space has also been used by therapists to meet with clients and by residents of local group homes for the developmentally disabled.
The librarian, Sue Anne, retired two years ago as Deputy Commissioner of Social Services for Essex County. “I’m still doing social work,” she says. For some people who come in, “my smile might be the only one they see that day. My job is to create a place where they can feel comfortable.
My smile might be the only one they see that day. My job is to create a place where they can feel comfortable."
That mission dovetails with a 2024 Generous Acts grant to the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System (CEFL) for its Community Care Project. This program supports economically disadvantaged community members, including those experiencing homelessness, by making essential hygiene items available at 18 member libraries across the three counties.
The grant was one of nearly $200,000 in funds Adirondack Foundation distributed to libraries in the Adirondack region in 2024, through Generous Acts, the Lake Placid Education Foundation (a supporting organization of Adirondack Foundation), gifts from our family of donor advised funds, and from the eight libraries that have funds with the Foundation.
More than 100 miles away from Au Sable Forks, in Herkimer County, the Old Forge community has the additional challenges of being severely underserved by local and state governments, and long distances from service organizations and amenities. As a result, says Old Forge Library director Linda Weal, “the Old Forge Library has made it a policy to offer a vast variety of arts, health, and recreational programming for residents and visitors year-round.”
In 2024, the Old Forge Library Association received a Generous Acts grant to enhance youth educational programming. “Many of our children's programs are beloved, generations-old traditions, such as the annual poetry and art contest, while others are new. Because they are free and worthwhile they are all wildly popular, and demand is growing rapidly,” she says.
Beyond increased participation metrics, she adds, “we often mark our progress in handmade cards from children, thank you notes from parents, and more high fives than seems likely.”
