History
The Albany Branch was established in 1926. It was first located in the Northwest School and then rented quarters at 1239 Albany Avenue. The present branch opened at 1250 Albany Avenue on February 1950 in a building by designed by H. Sage Goodwin.
Branch Facts
Size: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,400 sq. ft
Holdings: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24,000 items
Public Access Computers: . . . . . . . Twelve
Hours Open: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 hours per week
Attendance: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,215 visits per month
Circulation: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,820 items borrowed per month
Program Attendance: . . . . . . . . . 1,062 attending programs per month
Reference, Information & Reader Services: . . . . . . . . . 7,394 questions answered per month
Population Served
Population: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,583
Census Tracts: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5036, 5014, 5037
School Age Youth: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,772
% of Free or Reduced School Lunches: . . . . . . 87%
% of Adults with High School Education: . . . . . 59%
% of Owner Occupied Housing: . . . . . . . . . . 24.9%
% of Households with Access to Vehicles: . . . . 98.8%
% of Single Headed Households with
Children Under 18 Years: . . . . . . . . . . . 63.8%
Community Information
Businesses: . . . . . . . . . . 275
Youth Providers: . . . . . . . 5
Churches: . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Educational Institutions: . . . 7
Parks: . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Community Relationships/Services
The Albany Avenue Branch is strategically located on the Albany Avenue/Highway 44 corridor, in the midst of a thriving community of schools, small and family-owned businesses and community based organizations. Steps away from a public transportation route that travels both through and across the city and into surrounding suburbs, the Albany Avenue Branch supports the information needs of residents of Hartford and the Greater Hartford area.
The Branch has worked to create and maintain strong connections with the schools that are located within the neighborhood as well as with those schools (usually Charter or Magnet schools) located outside of Upper Albany but heavily attended by neighborhood children. Students from the neighborhood’s five elementary schools: Martin L. King, Jr., Annie Fisher, Thurman Milner, Jumoke Academy Charter School, and Faith Seventh Day Adventist School use the branch for it’s after-school homework assistance and extra-curricular programs which operate under the “Homework Club” program banner. The Branch also works with Twentieth Century Learning Center after school programs at Rawson Elementary School and Weaver High School in providing on-site evening reading programs for students and families. Students from Lewis Fox Middle School, adjacent to the library, utilize the Branch for research and are able to participate in programs such as the TAG (Teen Acting Group), or SCRIBES, the Branch’s summer creative writing workshop for youth. The Branch’s Technology Lab with ten personal computers draws students from the high school as well as from Capitol Community College, University of Hartford and St. Joseph’s College for Women. In 2000, the Albany Avenue Branch was instrumental in disseminating information about the founding of the new University of Hartford Multiple Intelligence-based Magnet School and since became one of the neighborhood institutions asked to serve on the school’s oversight committee. Additionally, the Branch provides weekly story times to several area daycares and headstart programs.
The Albany Avenue Branch works in partnership with various area civic and cultural institutions from the neighboring Artists’ Collective and the Upper Albany Main Street Association to AFCAMP (an association designed to support African American and Caribbean parents of children with disabilities) and CAYASCO (a Caribbean youth organization). Indeed the library functions as a primary and critical meeting space for many neighborhood-based agencies and associations. The Upper Albany NRZ, the Upper Albany Neighborhood Collaborative, the Upper Albany Community Council, the Always on Saturday Mentoring Program, the Greater Hartford American Red Cross Youth Group, Punchline: West-Indian Music and Entertainment Magazine, local block watches and many more organizations use the library’s community space for their regular meetings.
Noted Trends
The University of Hartford’s purchase of the former Cadillac Building located at the intersection of Albany Avenue and Westbourne Parkway with the intent of building its new Hart Music School on the site has generated much excitement. The University, perhaps inspired by Trinity College’s successes Hartford’s south-end has joined together with area CBOs to leverage resources for use in revitalizing the Upper Albany Neighborhood. Prospective plans include the desire to capitalize on the neighborhood’s cultural resources (anchored by the Artists’ Collective and the Branch Library) to create a “village” motif, with culturally inspired street banner and more interesting and intricate lighting and pedestrian walkways. That Branch staff have been asked to serve on key committees and board relevant to the neighborhood’s development is testimony to the support the Hartford Public Library system and the Branch have worked to cultivate.
New transportation plans for parking and traffic have also been initiated to support the revitalization process. Many buildings are receiving funds for facade improvements and housing initiatives aimed at expanding the neighborhood’s home owning for renting population can also be seen as an extension of this trend.
Demographically, the neighborhood is experiencing an increase in native Spanish-Language speakers and other residents for whom English is a second or third language. As homeownership and housing prices increase in the south-end, families are moving to Upper Albany where rents appear to be comparatively lower. Upper Albany’s proximity to West Hartford is also a drawing point for still other residents seeking access to suburban schools and other offerings, but looking for less expensive housing options. In addition to Spanish-speaking residents, there has been a marked community of Chinese and Korean residents new to the neighborhood and seeking relevant information resources.
Crime and safety issues continue to be a main source of concern for community residents. High school-dropout and unemployment rates contribute to the social cycle that keeps the neighborhood from realizing its very palpable potential as both a commercial district and source of rich housing stock. Increasingly the Albany Branch Library is being called on to assist city and community based organizations in offering support to those most at risk . In the last year and a half, the Branch has offered regular support and outreach services to senior centers, drug rehabilitation centers, homeless shelters, and re-entry/re-immersion corrections programs. Institutions such as the Village for Families and Children, the Open Hearth program and the community courts program are among some of the sites with which the Branch works closely.
Branch Initiatives
The Albany Avenue Branch Library endeavors daily to maintain its role as one of the Avenue’s most vital resources. Through the establishment of its new and promising “Homework Club”, a separate Young Adult readers’ section and programming for teens, the Midnight Library technology training programs, and its various civic involvements, collaborations and outreach services, the library has endeavored to “win back” library non-users and under-users. In particular, the branch has aggressively sought to increase its numbers of adult users. Noting that the Branch’s material circulation statistics did not reflect its extremely high public usage, the Branch has initiated such programs as the monthly Dimensions Book Club meeting; frequent cultural arts programming; and the establishment of an area specifically marked for small business development and personal finance. Since September 2000 the Branch has been open Monday through Friday until 10 p.m. The extended hours has brought with it increased awareness of the Branch as a key and accessible information resource in the community. To ensure that those who access the branch in the mid-evening have the same access to reference services as day users, the Branch staffing pattern has been rethought to ensure that lead reference staff are on site during prime after-work hours at least four days per week.
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