Trustee Election Update for Potential Candidates & Voters
Albany Public Library is hosting an information session for anyone interested in running for a seat on the library board TONIGHT — Thursday, May 7 — at 5:00 pm. The session will be livestreamed on YouTube, and recorded for later viewing.
Current trustees will share their experiences as board members and answer questions. There are two trustee seats up for election this year. Both positions carry full five-year terms.
The trustee election will take place on Tuesday, June 9, via absentee ballot.
Candidates must be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen, a resident of the city of Albany for at least 30 days immediately before the election, and a qualified voter. Candidates must also must submit a nominating petition.
Nominating petitions are due to the Clerk of the City School District of Albany by 5:00 pm, on Monday, May 11. Any person who has self-nominated and meets the other requirements will be placed on the ballot, in alphabetical order. The library will be able to announce the trustee candidate names after May 11.
We will host a livestream meet-the-candidate session, and publish biographical information about the candidates on its website. We’ll share details about these as they are finalized.
Absentee ballots will be mailed to Albany voters about 14 days before the June 9 election. Completed ballots must be returned and received by the school district by 5:00 pm on Tuesday, June 9, in order to be counted.
APL Director Discusses COVID-19 Reopening Approach
The library’s executive director, Scott C. Jarzombek, has been speaking about APL’s approach to reopening our locations once NY-PAUSE is lifted in the Capital Region.
“Reopening is not flipping a switch. It will be slowly adjusting a dial…The better we are at following this course, the closer we are to getting ourselves back to promoting a free and informed society,” he wrote in an article for the New York Library Association. You can read Jarzombek’s full article here.
Jarzombek talked more about APL’s approach to reopening on a recent WAMC News podcast. “We are that community space. We want to get back to it. But we know the only way we’re going to get back to it is to follow the protocols set forth by experts, and do it slowly. It will be slow. It will be deliberate. It will be with protocols in mind. It will be done in a way that if we have to roll things back, we can,” he said.
The full WAMC podcast episode is available here. Jarzombek’s discussion about the library starts at the 12-minute mark.
APL has a dynamic continuation of service plan, consisting of several phases, that is regularly refined based on new data and guidelines from the federal, state, and county governments. The plan is reviewed by the library’s Board of Trustees at every board meeting. The next board meeting is set for Tuesday, May 12, at 6 pm, and it will be livestreamed on YouTube.
