Last weekend, September 27 and 28, Paltzonians and visitors turned out as they have for seven decades to enjoy the Library Fair on the grounds of the Elting Memorial Library. Thousands of used books were laid out as usual on long tables under tents, beckoning thrifty readers to find some long-sought or unexpected treasure. It was the Fair’s 68th annual iteration, only having skipped one year in 2020 due to the COVID social distancing rules. Unseasonably warm weather smiled down on a crowd intent on celebration of a beloved local institution – in the low-key sort of way that booklovers tend to celebrate.
But there’s trouble in paradise this year for avid readers and others who utilize the diverse services provided by modern libraries. Among the costliest of these are digital offerings: access to e-books, audiobooks, recorded music, research databases and other valuable online resources. Demand for them has been increasing since the pandemic, now that more people know they’re available.
To be able to supply such resources to the community for free, many libraries rely on federal grant support — and that has been drying up under the current administration. President Trump tried to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) by executive order back in March. A court injunction put a temporary halt to the mass staff firings, but much funding that had already been allocated for grants was rescinded. Trump’s proposed 2026 budget calls for axing all funding for not only IMLS, but also the Department of Education’s Innovative Approaches to Literacy grant. The future of these programs hangs in the balance at presstime, as the federal fiscal year ends and Congress haggles over a possible government shutdown.
Fortunately, New York State is still committed to offering some financial assistance to library systems. The Elting Library put a capital campaign for long-needed building repairs and renovations on hold during the pandemic, but preparations have been moving forward again over the past two years, including a feasibility study, user surveys and a three-year plan for general operations. Soon the time will come to pick up the hammer and nails again, according to Crystal Middleton, director of the library since April 2024.
“We just applied for library construction aid from DASNY,” the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, Middleton told HV1 during the fair. “In the New Year we’ll probably begin taking it to the community.” Construction priorities identified by the library board include reconfiguring indoor spaces, creating gender-neutral bathrooms, enclosing the teen space, replacing the roof and updating the circulation desk.
Coming in November will be a ballot proposition to authorize a $75,000 increase in the library’s annual operating budget over the next three years, to a total of $844,000. The public vote is required under Chapter 414 of New York State Education Law 259.
Fortunately, some smaller grants have also been coming in from other non-federal sources. One, from the Ulster County Office of Tourism’s brand-new Green the Scene program, was specific to the Library Fair event. “It was a grant for us to separate out our trash and provide compostable serveware,” Middleton explained. “It just takes a teeny bit of extra effort. They just loaned us the signage. It’ll become our normal routine now.”
Besides a designated self-service recycling area, the 2025 Library Fair showcased a couple of other innovations over previous years. It was only the second time that the enticing items on offer in the annual silent auction fundraiser included rare, collectible first-edition books, for example. And the children’s activity tent set up on Church Street by the fair entrance, run by the Library’s Teen Advisory Group and volunteers from local schools, had something new to add to the usual array of games, face-painting, balloon animals, rock-painting and so on: Fliers were available announcing an organizing meeting on November 18 for Young Adult Intellectual Freedom Advocates, “a project for teens and young adults to advocate for intellectual freedom, fight censorship and book bans and much more.” With Banned Books Week coming up October 5 to 11, it seemed the perfect time to recruit young activists to the cause. The project is funded by a small grant from the Brooklyn Public Library’s Books Unbanned Initiative.
Elsewhere on the library grounds, familiar fair activities were underway: sales of books for adults and children, audiobooks, DVDs, CDs, vinyl LPs; plants, vintage jewelry, toys and household items; a food tent; information tables staffed by representatives of community groups such as the League of Women Voters, the Margaret Wade-Lewis Center, the Ulster Immigrant Defense Network, the New Paltz Climate Action Coalition and the Lifetime Learning Institute. In Middleton’s words, “It’s about information and it has to be about community.”
The director also expressed her enthusiasm for the free live musical entertainment that went on all Saturday at the fair, saying, “The talent has been great this year.” This year’s lineup of performers included Jim Bacon, Steve Raleigh, Grateful Dave, the Dandy Lions, Rob Johnson and Stephen Bergstein. In between sets, as usual, names of the winners of donated prizes were announced, as tickets were drawn throughout the day from the raffle drum. The Grand Prize, a two-night midweek stay at Mohonk Mountain House, went this year to Martha Tait-Watkins, a frequent volunteer at the library.
The Elting Memorial Library is located at 93 Main Street in downtown New Paltz, open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays. For details on the Library’s diverse offerings, many of which are accessible to Mid-Hudson Library System members online, visit http://www.eltinglibrary.org
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Join the family! 
