MID-HUDSON – Rebekkah Smith Aldrich sat down with Mid-Hudson News to discuss the library system in general, as well as the Mid-Hudson Library System while celebrating National Library Week, which ended Saturday, April 13, 2024. This is the first of a series of library system spotlights that will be featured by Mid-Hudson News.
“Libraries are more important than ever,” Aldrich told Mid-Hudson News. With access to the internet not as common as people think, Aldrich said “There is still an abundance of people in the Hudson Valley that don’t have internet connections and the library is the main place they are accessing the internet.” The leader of the Mid-Hudson Library System pointed out that staffers at the libraries are trained to help users decipher fact from fiction on the internet. “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and bad actors are using the internet to sway opinions and our library staff helps people decipher what they are seeing.”
Aldrich is proud of the increased number of users following the pandemic. “The number of users has increased 30 percent in two years,” she said, exclaiming “Libraries are more popular than ever.” The executive director attributed the growth to people feeling the need for bonding during the height of COVID. “We are experiencing a huge bounce back of people understanding how important ‘community’ is, and that has really become evident.”
Keep checking back to MidHudsonNews.com for follow-up segments on the Mid-Hudson Library System featuring Executive Director Rebekkah Smith Aldrich.
