Information Management and Technology Committee (RAAC)

CDLC is excited to announce the recipients of the CDLC 2024 Regional Collections Grants, which help libraries, museums, and historical societies make their undiscovered collections accessible for all to discover and enjoy. This year, we provided funding to 8 institutions.

Congratulations to our recipients, and thank you for making your unique collections available!​

• Albany County Historical Association at Ten Broeck Mansion will add a new collection to the New York Heritage digital collections website. The Wendell Family Papers contain various documents from prominent merchant families, shedding light on Albany's early history, particularly significant due to the loss of official records in a fire in 1911. The Crounse-MacHarg Family Bibles and Papers feature handwritten family records from immigrant families, spanning over seven generations of Albany County residents,
• The Castleton Public Library, a member of the Upper Hudson Library System, will digitize 300 historical photographs of the village for inclusion on the New York Heritage website, increasing public access to local history. This aligns with their commitment to free access to information and the CDLC's goals for resource sharing.
• SUNY Empire State University will digitize the Chickering-Boyer correspondence, a collection documenting the founding ideals of SUNY Empire. This project will not only improve their preservation but will support research opportunities, allowing broad exposure and facilitating research on topics related to SUNY's history, adult education, and higher education in the United States.
• The Fulton County Historical Society (FCHS) will digitize historical sports photographs focusing on baseball in Gloversville-Johnstown. This project will test a new data entry method and make the collection accessible online through New York Heritage, promoting public engagement with local history.
• Historic Cherry Hill (HCH) is partnering with local institutions to digitize the Philip & Maria Van Rensselaer Papers, crucial documents detailing their lives and roles in Revolutionary War-era New York and ownership of Cherry Hill. This project will increase access to these primary sources for researchers and the public, aligning with HCH's commitment to regional history and outreach.
• The Rudolf Steiner Library was awarded a grant to improve access to the Henry Barnes archive, a collection documenting an early 1900s educator. This project will create detailed descriptions of the archive's materials, making them more discoverable online and accessible to a wider audience, including those with disabilities, thereby aligning with the library's mission of sharing its collections and CDLC's goals for inclusivity.
• The Schenectady County Historical Society (SCHC) was awarded funding to digitize microfilm reels of historic newspapers, including the Mohawk Mercury and the Western Spectator. This project will enhance the visibility and usability of these newspapers for researchers, historians, and the general public. By making local news, advertisements, obituaries, and other records from 1795 onwards accessible online, the SCHS will increase access to regional history.
• The Round Lake Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System, was awarded funding to digitize historical materials related to the village of Round Lake, starting with programs from the Round Lake Methodist Summer Camp meetings and photos of historic structures and institutions from the 1800s and early 1900s. The project's goal is to increase the accessibility and visibility of the library's historical collections and ensure the village's past is preserved.

Grant applications were reviewed by all members of CDLC’s Information Management and Technology Committee. Projects were considered that improved access to collections and content or raised the visibility of regional collections while meeting the goals of CDLC’s Plan of Service. IMTC and the CDLC Board of Trustees approved committee recommendations.

The New York State Library Aid Program provides funding to make these grants possible.

CDLC is excited to announce the recipients of the CDLC 2023 Regional Collections Grants, which help libraries, museums, and historical societies make their undiscovered collections accessible for all to discover and enjoy. This year we provided funding to eight institutions.

Congratulations to our recipients, and thank you for making your unique collections available!​

• Albany County Historical Association at Ten Broeck Mansion will add a new collection to the New York Heritage digital collections website. The Farnsworth Family Papers, c.1820-1928, is a collection of unique records documenting four generations of the Farnsworth Family and their multiple political, military, and artistic roles in Albany. The collection includes correspondences by photographer Emma Farnsworth, who, while an accomplished and published photographer, struggled to share her work locally due to the gender restrictions of local camera clubs. Also highlighted are records relating to her grandfather, Civil War General Jonathan G. Farnsworth, and documents related to family friends, the Olcotts, who were bankers, supporters of abolition, and who lived in the Ten Broeck Mansion.
• The Community Library in Cobleskill, a Mohawk Valley Library System (MVLS) member, will continue to work on the Daisy Brown scrapbook project. Throughout her life, Daisy kept scrapbooks from 1879 to 1935, a total of 66 scrapbooks, including vital genealogical information such as marriage, death, and birth announcements. The goal of this project is to increase access to not only this much-used collection but also to create interest in other local history room materials.
• The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library, a Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS) member, is increasing access to the Richard Bloomer Portrait collection. Bloomer operated a studio in Hudson Falls from 1905 to 1931, during which he photographed thousands of everyday people, creating a time capsule of the community in striking black-and-white images.
• Historic Cherry Hill will be digitizing the diaries of Harriet (“Hattie”) Maria Elmendorf Gould (1844-1920) of Cherry Hill, created between 1879 and 1884. A record of the day-to-day experiences of a socially elite Victorian woman—in a household on the cusp of financial ruin—the diaries describe child-rearing, an emotionally abusive marriage, the scandal of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, the management of servants, and relationships between household members—including the multigenerational Elmendorf-Gould family, adopted relatives, servants, and African American children raised as servant-wards. The period in these journals captures race, class, gender relations, household management and economy, and family structure in one Gilded Age Albany household.
• Historical Society of the Town of Chester will continue to digitize and create metadata for negatives from their Itsumo Sumy collection. Sumy’s tenure as “Historian with a Camera” in the Town of Chester spanned four decades, and his prints capture the daily life of a small Adirondack town.
• Saratoga Springs Public Library, a Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS) member, has acquired local Saratogian newspapers, including ten years of master copies lost in a fire at the Saratogian in 1920. The information will fill in many lost pages between 1856-1911. Once digitized, the records will be added to New York State Historic Newspapers. Titles include The Saratogian, Saratoga Sun, Weekly Saratogian, semi-weekly Saratogian, and Saratoga Whig.
• Stillwater Free Library, a Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS) member, aims to preserve and share items of local historical interest, including Stillwater Central School yearbooks dating back to 1921 and AV footage of local performances, historical re-enactments, and the relocation of the Blockhouse to its riverfront home.
• The Schenectady County Historical Society will add a collection of documents created by the Overseers of the Poor in Schenectady, Glenville, and Rotterdam. The collection includes ledgers, receipts, indentures, reports, correspondence, legal documents such as pleas summaries of court proceedings, and citations. The records capture essential information about the treatment and condition of poor people in Schenectady County in the first half of the 19th century. One of the first major social projects the overseers were responsible for was the emancipation of Schenectady’s enslaved population in 1827. Once freed, most of Schenectady’s Black population were almost immediately classified as paupers and subject to the edicts of the overseers, once again finding themselves subjected to an overseer. The overseers were also responsible for the welfare of orphaned children and children living in impoverished homes.

Grant applications were reviewed by a grants sub-committee that included members of CDLC’s Regional Automation Advisory Committee, comprised of Walter Grattidge (research community member), Jill Ryder (Southern Adirondack Library System), John Myers (Union College), Kate Wantuch (Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences), and Jim Gandy (New York State Military Museum). Projects were considered that improved access to collections and content or raised the visibility of regional collections while meeting the goals of CDLC’s Plan of Service. RAAC and the CDLC Board of Trustees approved committee recommendations.

The New York State Library Aid Program provides funding to make these grants possible.

CDLC is excited to announce the recipients of the CDLC 2022 Regional Collections Grants which provide an opportunity for libraries, museums, and historical societies to make their undiscovered collections accessible for all to discover and enjoy. This year we were able to provide funding to ten institutions.

Congratulations to our recipients and thank you for making your unique collections available!​

• Albany County Historical Association at Ten Broeck Mansion will add items to the New York Heritage digital collections website. Highlights include important information about Albany's Arbor Hill neighborhood, unique early photos of Ten Broeck Mansion family members, and records related to the War of 1812 and related pensioner requests, representing rare records capturing the lives of working-class soldiers.
• The Community Library in Cobleskill, a member of the Mohawk Valley Library System, will digitize the scrapbooks of Daisy Brown. Throughout her life, Daisy kept scrapbooks that date from 1879 to 1935, a total of 66 scrapbooks, the contents of which include vital genealogical information such as marriage, death, and birth announcements. The goal of this project is to increase access to not only this much-used collection but also to create interest in other local history room materials.
• The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System, is the lead organization for a project called "Champlain Canal Stories" designed to celebrate 200 years of activity along the canal. Part of the project will include a collection of Champlain Canal images, photographs, maps, art, and other objects which will be made available to the public via the New York Heritage Digital Collections website.
• miSci will add 400 items documenting the African-American experience at GE to their vast New York Heritage collection. The collection will document the growth and contributions of African-American workers through factory work, research, engineering, and management.
• NYS Military Museum & Veterans Research Center will digitize and index the first five volumes of a 52-volume set of WWII New York Guard Rosters. The New York Guard was the successor to the New York National Guard while the National Guard was serving in WWII.
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will create records for archival collections including the Livingston Houston presidential records which highlight RPI activities during incredible regional growth during the post-WWII era and the Thomas Farrell papers which highlight the involvement of a Rensselaer County resident and RPI graduate with the Manhattan Project.
• St. Peter’s Hospital Library will start a project whose goal is to digitize, organize, and conserve the Memorial Hospital College of Nursing yearbook collection.
• Samaritan Hospital School of Nursing Library will identify, digitize, and contribute 200 original class photos to New York Heritage. These photographs date from 1902 to the present and consist of group pictures of RN and PN students.
• The Schenectady County Historical Society will create the Samuel W. Jones collection in New York Heritage which will include a diary and letters from Jones’ family, friends, and associates. Samuel Jones (1791-1855), was a graduate of Union College, and a significant political actor in Schenectady County and New York in the mid-nineteenth century. His diary gives a vision of life in Schenectady and New York in the mid-1800s.
• The Schenectady County Public Library, a member of the Mohawk Valley Library System, will digitize 10 years of the Schenectady Evening Star, from 1869 to 1880. The Evening Star was a large daily evening newspaper that boasted having "the largest evening circulation in Schenectady" and averaged about 9 pages per issue. Once digitized, the newspaper will be added to the NYS Historic Newspapers database.

Grant applications were reviewed by a grants sub-committee that included members of CDLC’s Regional Automation Advisory Committee, comprised of Brenden McCarthy (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Jill Ryder (Southern Adirondack Library System), John Myers (Union College), Chris White (Sage Colleges), Tim McDonough (Waterford Public Library) and Nancy Poehlmann (University at Albany Libraries.) Projects were considered that improved access to collections and content or raised the visibility of regional collections while meeting the goals of CDLC's Plan of Service. Committee recommendations were approved by RAAC and the CDLC Board of Trustees.

The New York State Library Aid Program provides funding to make these grants possible.

CDLC is excited to announce the recipients of the CDLC 2021 Regional Collections Grants which provide an opportunity for libraries, museums, and historical societies to make their undiscovered collections accessible for all to discover and enjoy. This year we were able to provide funding to seven institutions.

Congratulations to our recipients and thank you for making your unique collections available!​

• Albany County Historical Association will contribute items to New York Heritage, digitizing and creating finding aids for two key collections in the ACHA’s holdings which relate to ethnic identity, women's lives, and African-American and servants' lives in Albany County during the late 19th century. Lizzie Judson’s Sketchbook (1885-1887) and the Veghte Family Photographs and Papers (c.1870-1912) are both unique records providing researchers insights into social classes in late 19th-century Albany. The collections include sketches of and rare photographs of immigrant servants, nursemaids, and African-Americans workers and servants. The records also highlight the role of women – particularly teenage women – in family life, and their engagement with nature, their homes, gardens, and family life.
• Cheney Library, Hoosick Falls, a member of the Upper Hudson Library System, will be able to add a number of newspaper titles to the New York State Historic Newspaper including the Hoosick Falls Standard Press, The Gazette, and the Democrat with paper dates spanning over 100 years from 1864-1983.
• Historic Cherry Hill will be digitizing and adding 13 manuscript cookbooks ('receipt books"), totaling 1,442 pages, to their New York Heritage. Kept by the members of the Van Rensselaer Family of Cherry Hill from the 18th through the 20th century, this collection is among the most requested manuscript material at Historic Cherry Hill. Cherry Hill’s first mistress, Maria Van Rensselaer, began the first receipt book in 1768, the year of her marriage. A collection of recipes for fancy confections, cures, and household necessities (such as glue or shoe polish), the book represents the summation of one eighteenth-century mistress's knowledge of all that is needed to run a large, prosperous household. The receipt book includes a significant recipe for tea cookies, which, according to food historian, Peter Rose, is probably the oldest surviving Dutch-American cookie recipe. This and other early receipt books in the collection are valuable to researchers studying foodways, household economics, and Anglo-Dutch culture in the Hudson Valley.
• Maria College Library plans to digitize 141 documents that help chronicle the growth of the college from its origin to today, adding the content to New York Heritage.
• miSci will continue to add to their vast New York Heritage collection with the digitization of 600 items from the Mohawk Association of Scientists and Engineers (MASE), an organization of socially conscious scientists and engineers, active in the Capital Region from 1947-1963. Originally formed out of concern for atomic weapons, it expanded into other issues, including the targeting of scientists by the House Un-American Committee, transferring technology to developing countries, and science education. In the early 60s, scientists from MASE founded a national organization, the Volunteers for International Technical Assistance, that provided solar cooking materials to African nations and developed a wide variety of technical support materials for civil engineering and power generation for developing nations.
• Schenectady County Historical Society will be adding a new 115 item collection to New York Heritage. The materials include diaries, letters, muster rolls, checks, memoranda, military orders, and photographs. The materials were created by or received by Schenectady County soldiers and their loved ones in the course of their service during the Civil War, and describe events, military business, conditions, and individual experiences of the war.
• Union College will be digitizing the diary of Jonathan Pearson and adding that content to New York Heritage. Pearson graduated from Union College in 1835, where he taught Chemistry and Natural History before he became the Librarian and, finally, the Treasurer of the College. He began keeping his diary from about fourteen years of age, writing nearly every day for some duration, occasionally falling out of the habit to pick it up again. All told, his accounts stretch from 1828 until forty-seven years later and amount to 2,500 pages in length. They start with the scribblings of a young man, detailing his experiences and travels, and continue through his college years and his employment at the College. The diary holds accounts of Pearson’s travels in New England and through parts of the United States and documents his time as a member of the College administration. In addition, Pearson, a devout Baptist, reflects on many aspects of the society of his day, such as slavery, as he records his impressions of historical events. Pearson himself suffers illness, engages in many travels, and lives as a father through the travails of family life.

Grant applications were reviewed by a grants sub-committee that included members of CDLC’s Regional Automation Advisory Committee, comprised of Brenden McCarthy (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), Sharon O'Brien (Mohawk Valley Library System), and Nancy Poehlmann (University at Albany Libraries.) Projects were considered that improved access to collections and content or raised the visibility of regional collections while meeting the goals of CDLC's Plan of Service. Committee recommendations were approved by RAAC and the CDLC Board of Trustees.

These grants are made possible through funding by the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program (RBDB).

CDLC is excited to announce the recipients of the CDLC 2020 Regional Collections Grants which provide an opportunity for libraries, museums, and historical societies to make their undiscovered collections accessible for all to discover and enjoy. This year we were able to provide funding to twelve institutions.

Congratulations to our recipients and thank you for making your unique collections available!​

• Albany County Historical Association will contribute items to New York Heritage, digitizing and creating finding aids for two key collections in the ACHA’s holdings: Family Bibles/Prayer Books – hand-written family records and essays (c. 1701-1852) and Ten Broeck and Olcott Family Papers (c.1760s-1920s). The Ten Broeck and Olcott family papers are valuable to social historians, containing information on how families' lives and health unfolded during the cycles of births and deaths. The bibles and prayer books contain hand-written essays and prayers, providing insight into the spiritual life of early Americans.
• Hart Cluett Museum/Historic Rensselaer County will continue to create records for currently uncataloged items relating to the history of Rensselaer County allowing for greater visibility and broader access to the material by genealogists, local community members, teachers, storytellers, and classes of primary and secondary students.
• Historical Society of the Town of Chester will digitize and create metadata for 300 negatives from their Itsumo Sumy collection. Sumy's tenure as "Historian with a Camera" in the Town of Chester spanned four decades and his prints capture the daily life of a small Adirondack town.
• Irish American Heritage Museum will continue to catalog material pertaining to Ireland and the Irish-American experience for researchers and genealogists to access in the wider community.
• Maria College Library plans to digitize material from their archive relating to the Nursing Program, which is celebrating its 50th Anniversary and adding the content to New York Heritage.
• Mechanicville District Public Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), will be adding more than 26,000 pages of The Mechanicville Mercury, Mechanicville Saturday Mercury, and the Hudson Valley Times to NYS Historic Newspapers to increase the accessibility to this primary resource. The papers range in date from 1883-1923.
• miSci will continue to add to their vast New York Heritage collection by contributing 300 items relating to female scientists and engineers at General Electric highlighting the stories of groundbreaking female scientists, ranging from the early 1900s through the 1990s. These items will document their achievements, the challenges these women faced, and their body of research and will include papers from Katharine Blodgett, Nancy Fitzroy, Beulah Decker, and Betty Lou Bailey.
• Saratoga Springs Public Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), will be adding over 150 images taken by Harry B Settle to their New York Heritage collection. These never before seen images show aspects of life in Saratoga Springs from the early 1880s until the 1920s.
• Schenectady County Historical Society will be adding a new collection to New York Heritage consisting of 18th and 19th-century materials that document slavery in Schenectady County including bills of sale, wills, deeds, and letters.
• Siena College Library will complete the digitization of the Siena College Yearbook Collection which reflects the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of Siena students spanning 80 years. The full collection of digitized yearbooks will be available through the Siena College Digital Collections.
• Troy Public Library, a member of the Upper Hudson Library System (UHLS), will digitize their George W. Shepard Collection, "Views of Troy, N.Y." which consists of 130 albumen images of Troy businesses circa 1890.  Many of the businesses in the images have long since closed, but the buildings themselves remain, and the finding aid includes detailed location information. As such, the collection is very useful in providing historical information of particular pieces of property or general neighborhoods in Troy. These items will be added to their New York Heritage Collection.
• Union College - Adirondack Research Library, will be adding 132 images taken by Osmond David Putnam to New York Heritage. The photographs capture everyday life in the Adirondacks, including depictions of labor and industry, rural education, landscapes, architecture, and portraits of community members near Johnsburg which provide a glimpse into the close of the nineteenth century as the Adirondacks moved from an isolated wilderness to a permanently settled part of the State.

Grant applications were reviewed by a grants sub-committee that included members of CDLC’s Regional Automation Advisory Committee, comprised of Jill Ryder (Southern Adirondack Library System), Tim McDonough (Waterford Public Library), Colleen Smith (Town of Ballston Community Library), and Nancy Poehlmann (University at Albany Libraries.) Projects were considered that improved access to collections and content or raised the visibility of regional collections while meeting the goals of CDLC's Plan of Service. Committee recommendations were approved by RAAC and the CDLC Board of Trustees.

These grants are made possible through funding by the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program (RBDB).

CDLC is excited to announce the recipients of the CDLC 2019 Regional Collections Grants which provide an opportunity for libraries, museums, and historical societies to make their undiscovered collections accessible for all to discover and enjoy. This year we were able to provide funding to eleven institutions.

Congratulations to our recipients and thank you for making your unique collections available!

• Castleton Public Library, a member of Upper Hudson Library System (UHLS), will create records for local history items related to the Village of Castleton-on-Hudson and the Town of Schodack. These items may be of interest to local history researchers and genealogists, as well as those interested in town planning/development and environmental conservation.
• Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), will partner with the Town of Halfmoon's  Historical Society to add 100 photographs from the Halfmoon Historian's Collection to New York Heritage. The addition of these items will help to digitally illustrate Halfmoon's history as the "mother" town for southern Saratoga County.
• Crandall Public Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS) and early contributor to New York Heritage, will continue to add original materials to their collection in hopes of broadening access to them.
• Fort Edward Free Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), plans to digitize a number of local newspapers and add them to the NYS Historic Newspapers project.  The titles cover the time period of 1818-1939 and include The Fort Edward Advertiser and the Washington County Advertiser.
• Greenwich Free Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), will be digitizing their local paper, The Greenwich Journal and Salem Press (2014-2018) and The Commonweal (1909-1913). This title is a hidden gem which few in the community know about. These two titles are an invaluable resource for the community and a primary source for local research, whether it is a search for an accident report, and environmental catastrophe, or reliving an old victory from childhood triumphs on the sports fields.
• Guilderland Public Library, a member of Upper Hudson Library System (UHLS), will be digitizing 11 sketchbooks that were part of the Community Artbook Project that ran from October through December of 2018.  This unique snapshot of Guilderland's creative community will be available to view in a gallery on the library's website.
• Johnstown Public Library, a member of the Mohawk Valley Library System (MVLS), will be adding more than 62,400 pages of The Johnstown Daily Republican (1890 - 1912) to NYS Historic Newspapers to increase the accessibility to this primary resource.
• Maria College Library plans to digitize the Maria College yearbook, Reflections (1967-1976, 1980) adding its contents to New York Heritage. This project will help preserve and provide a cultural and historical perspective of the faculty and students of the college.
• miSci will continue to add to their vast New York Heritage collection by contributing 250 documents relating to the story of industrial research including reports of important historical projects, including electric car, robotics (Walking Truck and Hardiman), the Man-Made Diamond, Project Cirrus (cloud seeding), lasers, X-ray tubes, and the tungsten light bulb.
• Schenectady County Historical Society will be adding a new collection to New York Heritage consisting of 350 photos depicting natural disasters throughout Schenectady County.  There will be images taken during the Great Flood of 1914, as well as other floods, tornadoes, and blizzards.  
• Union College - Adirondack Research Library, will be adding 750 photographs taken by Kay Flickinger Dockstader to New York Heritage.  Kay, a Schenectady native, and engineer at GE, was an avid hiker and Adirondack Mountain enthusiast. In 1946, she became the forty-first person to climb all 46 high peaks. Her photographs depict the mountains and fauna of the park and will be of particular interest to researchers of Adirondack history, women's history, and environmental studies.

Grant applications were reviewed by a grants sub-committee that included members of CDLC’s Regional Automation Advisory Committee, comprised of Jill Ryder (Southern Adirondack Library System), Tim McDonough (Waterford Public Library), Colleen Smith (Town of Ballston Community Library), Jane Bentley (Questar III BOCES) and Nancy Poehlmann (University at Albany Libraries.) Projects were considered that improved access to collections and content or raised the visibility of regional collections while meeting the goals of CDLC's Plan of Service. Committee recommendations were approved by RAAC and the CDLC Board of Trustees.

These grants are made possible through funding by the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program (RBDB).

CDLC is excited to announce the recipients of the CDLC 2018 Regional Collections Grants which provide an opportunity for libraries, museums, and historical societies to make their undiscovered collections accessible for all to discover and enjoy. This year we were able to provide funding to eleven institutions.

Congratulations to our recipients and thank you for making your unique collections available!

• Castleton Public Library, a member of Upper Hudson Library System (UHLS), will be creating records for a number of local history items related to the Village of Castleton-on-Hudson and the Town of Schodack allowing for greater visibility and broader access to the material.
• Cohoes Public Library, a member of Upper Hudson Library System (UHLS), will be digitizing a 24 year run of the Cohoes Republican from 1895-1919. This newspaper is of particular interest to researchers of early Cohoes history as well as genealogists and will be made available through NYS Historic Newspapers.
• Maria College Library plans to digitize the Maria College newsletter, Promarian adding its contents to New York Heritage. This project will help preserve and provide a cultural and historical perspective of the faculty and students of the college.
• miSci will continue to add to their vast New York Heritage collection, contributing 250 unique documents relating to the history of radio broadcasting in the Capital Region- just in time for the commercial radio centennial which begins in 2020!
• North Warren Central School District, a member of the Washington, Saratoga, Warren, Hamilton, and Essex BOCES (WSWHE), will be cataloging over 400 books on the Adirondacks. This collection was donated by a local community member and broadly represents the history and folklore of the largest protected natural area in the continental United States.
• Pember Library and Museum (Granville), a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), will continue to contribute early issues of the Granville Sentinel for inclusion to NYS Historic Newspapers. The paper gives a unique historical perspective of the Slate Valley region and the many people who migrated there to work in the quarries.
• Rensselaer County Historical Society will be creating records for a number of currently uncataloged items relating to the history of Rensselaer County allowing for greater visibility and broader access to the material by genealogists, local community members, teachers, storytellers, and classes of primary and secondary students.
• Schenectady County Community College is digitizing a number of images and newspaper clippings regarding the founding of the College's School of Hotel, Culinary Arts, and Tourism for inclusion to New York Heritage.
• Schenectady County Historical Society will be adding a new collection to New York Heritage consisting of hundreds of photos depicting Ellis Hospital taken during the mid-20th century. Subjects include various units of the hospital, doctors and nurses, technological advancement, and social life.
• Schenectady County Public Library, a member of the Mohawk Valley Library System (MVLS), will add The Citizen, a newspaper founded in 1910 by Schenectady resident George R. Lunn, the first Socialist mayor in New York State. Dating from 1910-1918, the newspaper is used by scholars researching early 20th century political and labor issues and will be available through NYS Historic Newspapers.
• Troy Public Library, a member of Upper Hudson Library System (UHLS), will be digitizing two bound volumes of a Lansingburgh newspaper entitled American Spy. Published from 1791-1797, it is one of the oldest newspapers published in the area and will be of great value to local historians, researchers, and genealogists.  The paper will be made available through NYS Historic Newspapers.

Grant applications were reviewed by a grants sub-committee that included members of CDLC’s Regional Automation Advisory Committee, comprised of Jill Ryder (Southern Adirondack Library System), Tim McDonough (Waterford Public Library), Colleen Smith (Town of Ballston Community Library), and Tessa Killian (SENYLRC.) Projects were considered that improved access to collections and content or raised the visibility of regional collections while meeting the goals of CDLC's Plan of Service. Committee recommendations were approved by RAAC and the CDLC Board of Trustees.

These grants are made possible through funding by the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program (RBDB).

This year, we were excited to be able to offer a second round of Regional Collection Grants. Please continue reading to learn about the projects we are helping to fund!

Again, congratulations to our recipients and thank you for making your unique collections available!

• St. Thomas the Apostle School, a member of Capital Region BOCES’ School Library System, will catalog the library's 4,000+ titles, enabling them to join the Capital Region BOCES centralized digital catalog of eighty-three public and private schools. 
• Cohoes Public Library, a member of Upper Hudson Library System (UHLS), will digitize and include in the NYS Historic Newspapers Database issues of the local Cohoes American newspaper. This title is used by patrons to research early Cohoes history as well as for genealogy research. 
• The Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library,  a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), was awarded funds to hire a consultant to work with staff to continue to add materials to the New York Heritage Digital Collections website. An early contributor to this statewide effort, the Folklife Center recently completed a project that added over 500 items. They will continue to add items to New York Heritage consisting of art, folk art, and artifacts, targeting Glens Falls/Saga City Japan Sister City Collection, the Nell Pruyn Cunningham Indian Basket Collection, Folk Art & Artists Collection, Csaplar Lake George Collection.
• Maria College Library will scan and digitize the Maria College Anniversaries Collection. The library will digitize invitations, programs, proclamations, speeches, letters, and advertisements with celebratory congratulations from dignitaries and companies of the 25th, 50th and 60th anniversaries. This year, Maria College celebrated its 60th anniversary on April 25, 2018.
• NYS Military Museum will add over 800 oral histories from NYS veterans of all eras to New York Heritage. The museums' New York Heritage collection is one of the largest and most popular collections from the Capital District.
• Rudolf Steiner Library will use the grant to continue to catalog one of the most unique collections in the Capital District.  The titles held by the Anthroposophical Society are requested by various libraries across the nation. 
• Schenectady County Community College was awarded funding that will allow the library to purchase a flatbed scanner in order to digitize color photographs. 
• The College of Saint Rose will create original catalog records for a collection of theses written by St. Rose graduate students and include research in the fields of counseling, teacher education, music education, communication and sciences disorders, and English. 

Grant applications were reviewed by a grants sub-committee that included members of CDLC’s Regional Automation Advisory Committee, comprised of Jill Ryder (Southern Adirondack Library System), Tim McDonough (Waterford Public Library), Colleen Smith (Town of Ballston Community Library), and Tessa Killian (Southeastern Library Council) Projects were considered that improved access to collections and content or raised the visibility of regional collections while meeting the goals of CDLC's Plan of Service. Committee recommendations were approved by RAAC and the CDLC Board of Trustees.

These grants are made possible through funding by the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program (RBDB).

CDLC is excited to announce the recipients of the CDLC 2017 Retrospective Conversion, Metadata, Digitization, and Newspaper grants which provide an opportunity for libraries, museums, and historical societies to make their undiscovered collections accessible for all to discover and enjoy. This year we were able to provide total funding of $35,000 to thirteen institutions.

Congratulations to our recipients and thank you for making your unique collections available!

• Crandall Public Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), will be adding 250 objects related to the greater Glens Falls region to their New York Heritage collection. Highlights include H.A. Ferguson's "Covered Bridge over the Hudson River" (1882), a pin from the Boys Savings Club (a project of our founder Henry Crandall), and a hand-painted bass drum of the Glens Falls City Band circa 1915.
• The Dudley Observatory will create metadata for approximately eight cubic feet of documents that were produced concerning micro-meteorite research done at the Observatory thereby increasing access for educators and researchers. The documents include, micro-meteorite images, reports on findings, grant proposals, and even contracts with NASA.
• Hudson Valley Community College will expand digital access to documents published pre-1960, while also developing a collegiate sports and athletics sub-collection to New York Heritage.
• Irish American Heritage Museum will contribute 400 titles related to the Irish and Irish American History, heritage, and culture to OCLC and the CDLC catalog, creating increased access for resource sharing.
• Maria College Library will digitize "The Mariale," the college’s spring literary magazine from 1961-1964 and 1966-1976 and add them to New York Heritage. With over 446 creative works contained within, the paper provides a glimpse into an important time in American History.
• Museum of Innovation and Science will be adding 250 historic audio recordings to New York Heritage. These include experimental sound-on-film recordings from 1929, oral history recordings of GE engineers and researchers, historic local broadcasts from the 1940’s and 1950’s including several episodes of “Your Home Town”, a local history radio program and more.
• Pember Library and Museum (Granville), a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), will contribute early issues of the Granville Sentinel for inclusion in the NYS Historic Newspapers database. The paper gives a unique historical perspective of the Slate Valley region and the many people who migrated there to work in the quarries.
• Saratoga Springs Public Library a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), will increase digital access to their Robert Joki Stereoscopic Collection by adding images to New York Heritage, their Omeka digital collection, and creating finding aids through Empire ADC.
• Schenectady County Historical Society will digitize and add the Glen Family Letters Collection to New York Heritage. This collection will be particularly valuable for researchers of Early American History. Henry Glen was a merchant, politician and deputy quartermaster general based in Schenectady during the American Revolution.
• St. Mary's Institute, a member of HFM BOCES School Library System, will convert the school library's 4000+ card catalog records to MARC records, enabling them to join the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery (HFM) BOCES centralized digital catalog. This will allow them to offer their students more seamless access to the many resources a centralized library catalog provides.
• Troy Public Library, a member of Upper Hudson Library System (UHLS), will digitize the early years of the Lansingburgh Gazette from the end of 1798 through mid-1883. Newspapers are an important tool for genealogists and researchers, providing access to marriage and death notices which predate the New York State Department of Health’s mandate for registering vital records. The newspaper will be available through the NYS Historic Newspapers database.
• Union College will add three Civil War-era archival collections to New York Heritage. Written by men who fought and died in battles like Antietam and the Battle of Cold Harbor, these collections include letters about daily and camp life, military maneuvers, and passages concerninng several Acts of Congress that enabled African Americans to enlist in the military.
• University at Albany will provide original cataloging for over 250 Master's theses titles dating from 1914 through 1979 in the areas such as Education, Atmospheric Sciences, and Public Policy. These theses are important to researchers in the history of graduate education and the records will be added to OCLC and UAlbany's catalog thereby facilitating resource sharing.

Grant applications were reviewed by a grants sub-committee that included members of CDLC’s Regional Automation Advisory Committee, comprised of Jennifer Ferriss (Southern Adirondack Library System), Tim McDonough (Waterford Public Library), and Nancy Poehlmann (University at Albany), and Tessa Killian (SENYLRC.) Projects were considered that improved access to collections and content or raised the visibility of regional collections while meeting the goals of CDLC's Plan of Service. Committee recommendations were approved by RAAC and the CDLC Board of Trustees.

These grants are made possible through funding by the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program (RBDB).

These grants provide an opportunity for libraries, museums and historical societies in our region to make their undiscovered collections accessible for all to discover and enjoy.

Congratulations to the recipients and thank you for making your unique collections available!

Grant recipients are:

• Albany Public Library, a member of the Upper Hudson Library System (UHLS), for cataloging eighty maps of Albany residing in their local history collection.
• Darrow School, a member of the Questar III School Library System, for preserving documents in the Darrows Archives, to create finding aids for the collection and to provide access to these documents by digitizing each one in order to share the collection with the wider local, state, and worldwide community.
• Guilderland Public Library, a member of the Upper Hudson Library System (UHLS), for digitization and creation of metadata for two previously undocumented collections using CONTENTdm software. One collection includes 21 photographs of structures in Guilderland, most of which no longer exist. It also includes early views of United States Highway 20, dating back to when it was an unpaved thoroughfare.
• Hudson Valley Community College for cataloging photographs, yearbooks, handbooks, campus-produced video recordings, and other college publications.
• Maria College for conversion and digitization of the Religious Sisters of Mercy and Maria College Glee Club albums to compact discs and MP3s.
• NYS Military Museum for digitization of the third section of the 15th New York National Guard enlistment cards. These cards are for the historically African-American regiment for the years of 1920-1949.
• Rensselaer County Historical Society for digitization of local newspapers The Clarion and The Sun which were published between 1886 and 1887 as labor papers for the large population of factory and industrial workers in Troy.
• Rudolf Steiner Library for an ongoing retrospective cataloging project originally begun in 2009; primarily works by Rudolf Steiner and other anthroposophical authors, including Waldorf education materials.
• Schenectady County Historical Society for digitization and creation of metadata for images that highlight the history of the city of Schenectady, specifically images of Schenectady's street scenes.
• Union College for the creation of metadata in New York Heritage (NYH) for a variety of Civil War ­era material being digitized in the College Archives and targeted for uploading to NYH and for the enhancement of metadata for The Encyclopedia of Union College History, which has already been digitized and published on NYH.

Grant applications were reviewed by a grants sub-committee of CDLC’s Regional Automation Advisory Committee, comprised of Jennifer Ferriss (Southern Adirondack Library System), Tim McDonough (Waterford Public Library), and Nancy Poehlmann (University at Albany). Projects were considered that improved access to collections and content or raised the visibility of regional collections while meeting the goals of CDLC's Plan of Service.  Committee recommendations were approved by RAAC and the CDLC Board of Trustees.

These grants are made possible through funding by the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program (RBDB).

2016 NYS Historic Newspapers Grant Recipients

The Capital District Library Council (CDLC) is pleased to announce the recipients of a pilot grant for participation in the NYS Historic Newspapers, a site that provides free online access to a wide range of New York newspapers. CDLC offered this grant opportunity to member libraries in our ten-county region as a way to increase access to and visibility of their collections.

The 2016 Grant Recipients are:

The Greenwich Free Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System, has been awarded a grant in the amount of $7,900* to digitize 171 years of the Washington Journal, spanning 1842-2013.

RCS Community Library, a member of the Upper Hudson Library System, has been awarded a grant in the amount of $10,100* to digitize 123 years of the Ravena News-Herald, spanning 1873-1996.

Schenectady County Public Library, a member of the Mohawk Valley Library System, in partnership with the Schenectady County Historical Society, has been awarded a grant in the amount of $3,400* to digitize 50 years of the Schenectady Reflector, spanning 1835-1885.

*All grant amounts are approximate, depending on production costs.

This pilot grant program was extremely competitive with 12 member libraries requesting almost $300,000 to digitize 22 titles. The grants were awarded based on the length of the publication run, the age of the newspapers, and their ability to increase the geographic representation in NYS Historic Newspapers. Based on the interest this grant generated, the Regional Automation Advisory Committee (RAAC) of CDLC will explore offering the grant again next year.

The New York State Historic Newspaper project is administered by the Northern New York Library Network. It is an Empire State Library Network (ESLN) initiative, and participation in this project is available to all CDLC members.

Please visit http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org for more information about NYS Historic Newspapers or contact Susan D’Entremont (susan@cdlc.org) if you are interested in participating in this project.

All CDLC members are eligible to apply for these grants, which provide an opportunity for libraries, museums, and historical societies to make their unique and varied collections accessible via online catalogs or as digital collections for all to discover and enjoy. This year, we were able to provide total funding of over $17,000 to nine institutions.

• Albany College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences for digitization and creation of metadata in New York Heritage of items from the College Archives such as historical papers, photographs, commencement bulletins, and student newspapers.
• The College of Saint Rose for retrospective conversion of assessments from the Emery Educational and Clinical Services Center at the college.
• Crandall Public Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), for digitization and creation of metadata in New York Heritage from the library’s Special Collections Folklife Center.
• Dudley Observatory for digitization and creation of metadata in New York Heritage for items from Dudley’s historical archives and artifacts. The story of Dudley’s “Scientific Sweatshop” will be documented.
• Fort Edward Free Library, a member of the Southern Adirondack Library System (SALS), for retrospective conversion of titles from the library’s local history collection.
• Hudson Valley Community College for retrospective conversion of titles from the college archives and digitization and creation of metadata in New York Heritage.
• Middleburgh Public Library, a member of the Mohawk Valley Library System (MVLS), for digitizing and creating metadata in New York Heritage for items from the library’s Local History Room and the Dr. Best House & Medical Museum.
• miSci (Museum of Innovation and Science) for retrospective conversion of items, including titles relating to the electrical industry, engineering, business, and Schenectady history.
• New York State Military Museum for digitization and creation of metadata in New York Heritage for enlistment cards of the 15th New York National Guard unit.

• Albany Institute of History & Art for retrospective conversion of special collection books, original cataloging of manuscript single sheets, and original cataloging of manuscript finding aids.
• Crandall Public Library for retrospective conversion of titles from the Folklife Center Serials collection – local and regional history, genealogy, Folklife studies, 19th century publications.
• Dudley Observatory for digitization and creation of metadata in New York Heritage from the Observatory’s historical archives and artifact collections such as lantern slides, globes, and telescopes.
• Guilderland Public Library for digitization and creation of metadata in New York Heritage for a collection of yearbooks from the Farnsworth Middle School.
• Hudson Valley Community College for retrospective conversion of titles from the college archives and other college publications. Titles also will be digitized and made available in New York Heritage.
• miSci for digitization and creation of metadata in New York Heritage for images from the GE Research Laboratory Photo Collection.
• NYS Military Museum for digitization and creation of metadata in New York Heritage for enlistment cards for men from the 15th New York Unit (the African-American unit).
• Rudolf Steiner Library for retrospective conversion of titles from the Rudolf Steiner Library of the Anthroposophical Society in America into OCLC.
• Skidmore College for digitization and creation of metadata in Skidmore’s CONTENTdm platform for Skidmore College publications.

The RAAC subcommittee that reviewed the 2014 grant applications is Maria McShane (The College of Saint Rose), Mary Ann Warner (Schenectady County Public Library), Colleen Smith (Albany Law School) and Jane Bentley (Questar III).

The Regional Bibliographic Databases Program (RBDB) was established in 1984 as part of Education Law. Funds provided for the RBDB Program may be used for a variety of purposes to support regional resource sharing and regional automation.