The Round Lake Library is located in the

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

of Round Lake,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, United States. The village is located in

Saratoga County Saratoga County is a county in the U.S. state of New York, and is the fastest-growing county in Upstate New York. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was enumerated at 235,509, representing a 7.2% increase from the 2010 popul ...

, northeast of

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

. The Round Lake Library was established in 1897 by the Woman's Round Lake Improvement Society (WRLIS), a not-for-profit organization of men and women from the community who sponsor activities to improve the village. The mission of WRILS was "to make Round Lake desirable and attractive as a place of residence and in all ways to study to keep pace with the progressive spirit of the age." The Round Lake Library has stayed true to WRILS' mission and is a beloved centerpiece of the Round Lake community that has thrived for the past 110 years.

History

The Round Lake Library was originally known as The Free Library and Reading Room and opened July 6, 1897 with 400

books A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical ar ...

donated by residents of the

. It was the second

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

and the first to have its own building. WRILS rented the Clark House for $150 per year in order to house the Library and the building was bequeathed to the Library after its owner, Caroline Garnsey, died. The Library's first three librarians were members of the same family: Louise Lodewick Stevens, followed by her daughter Grace Powers and then her granddaughter Dorothy Northup in 1954. The Village of Round Lake has decorative wooden homes crowded closely together and while this makes for a quaint community, it also created a fire hazard. On July 10, 1921, 17 buildings were destroyed as a result of a fire that started in a cottage located on the Library lawn. The Library was one of the few buildings that was not completely destroyed. The Round Lake Library is still housed in its original Victorian-style building at 31 Wesley Avenue. The Kate VanDembers Memorial Committee Room was added following the loss of the social room in the 1921 fire and the WRILS meeting room was added later. In 1908,

State aided the Library in instituting and using the

Dewey Decimal Classification The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), colloquially known as the Dewey Decimal System, is a proprietary library classification system which allows new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. Section 4.1 ...

. In 1955, the Vischer Ferry Library donated many books to the Round Lake Library's collection, which significantly enhanced its offerings. The Round Lake Library was also the first Library in Saratoga County to join the

Southern Adirondack Library System The Southern Adirondack System (SALS) is a consortium of thirty-four libraries in Saratoga, Warren, Washington, and Hamilton counties in New York. SALS is one of 23 public state-supported library systems in New York. It was chartered in 1959 b ...

(SALS) in 1957, a voluntary association of public libraries in Hamilton, Saratoga, Warren and Washington Counties. As a result, the Library received funding for books, equipment and reference materials and by 1968 it offered the borrowing of books, records, art prints and films, as well as providing reference services and eventually interlibrary loan services. In 2009 the Round Lake Library opened a branch in the David Meager Community Center in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

Today

WRILS continues to support the Round Lake Library today, primarily through proceeds of the annual antiques and arts and crafts festivals. The society also sponsors the Round Lake Victorian Village House Tour and story hours for children. The Town of Malta began its financial support to the Library in 1965 with a gift of $1000. This amount has steadily grown and is now approximately $53,000 per year. The Library is chartered by the

New York State Education Department The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the supervision for all public schools in New York and all standardized testing, as well as the production and administration o ...

Board of Regents to serve the

of Round Lake and the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

of Malta. Although the Round Lake Library is housed in cozy quarters, it is prepared to meet the needs of its residents and patrons in the twenty-first century. It offers

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

and children books (including a distinct Victoriana and Parenting collection),

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

videotapes Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassette ...

and

DVDs The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

, musical recordings on CD, children computers, eAudiobooks, an updated medical reference section,

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

access, online Library Catalog and databases, Inter-Library Loan services, fax machine and copier, a book shop as well as meeting space for non-profit groups. Round Lake Library Statistics from 2006:
Library Materials Owned: 18,194
Library Materials Borrowed: 47,317
Library Visits: 16,697
Programs Held: 87
Public Computers: 3

Notes

*Round Lake Association 1868-1968" booklet compiled by Women's Round Lake Improvement Society for Centennial Celebration August 11–17, 1968. *"Round Lake: Little Village in the Grove" by Mary Hesson, David J. Rogowski and Marianne Comfort (1998) *http://www.malta-town.org/Cit-e-Access/webpage.cfm?TID=44&TPID=5769 *http://directory.sals.edu/index.php

References

External links

* *http://www.sals.edu/libpacs/rdlpublic2.shtml {{authority control Public libraries in New York (state) Special districts of New York (state)