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April 25 Newsletter

April 25 Newsletter

HPL Newsletter Apr 25

April 01, 2025

What’s new at the library?

The Poetry Machine is an old capsule machine, the kind you might spend two quarters to get a bouncy ball, sticky hand, or small plastic alien from in the vestibule of a convenience store. With this machine, you can get your very own poem (for free—no quarters necessary).

Inside the Poetry Machine are 10 different poems. Each one features a unique style of poetry, including haiku, cento, epistolary, list, ode, ekphrasis, prose poem, how-to, erasure, and cut-up.

The Poetry Machine will be moving around Hamilton for the month of April, find it in the library April 5th -12th.

Upcoming Programs

Calendar of Events

Art Exhibit

Coming Soon: Susan’s Garden

Photography by Susan Beattie

Friends of the Library

Science Fiction reads for April

All Systems Red by Martha Wells
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Starter Villain by John Scalzi
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Ascension by Nicholas Binghe
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

Recommend a Book

Read a really good book recently that you think other people should read as well? Let us know and we’ll share it in a future newsletter!

Request a Recommendation

Want a personalized recommendation? Fill out the form to let us know what kind of book you’re looking for!

Suggest an Item for purchase

Want to read, watch, or listen to something the library doesn’t own? Let us know and we will consider purchasing it for our collection.

New Books

From the Director

Happy National Library Week!

This year’s National Library Week theme is “Drawn to the Library,” so be sure to stop in and see what we have to offer from April 6 - 12. Whether you’re a regular patron or just an occasional user, we probably have something new to draw you in. Maybe it’s a new program, new museum pass, or just something from the new book shelves, it won’t take long to discover something new for you.

Aside from using your local library, you can also help us celebrate National Library Week by contacting your local representatives to secure future funding at the State and National levels.

First, and most urgently, New York’s 2026 budget is due April 1st. If you are reading this on April 1, please take a moment to support stable funding for libraries statewide by clicking this link and filling out a very simple form which will be shared with your state representatives.

Second, and also filed under “urgent,” please take another moment to defend funding on the national level. On March 14, President Trump proposed cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). According to the American Library Association, the “IMLS draws less than 0.003% of the annual federal budget.” For New York State, an elimination of this funding will result in cuts to statewide programs and services.

Please take a moment to fill out this form (similar to the one above) to voice your support of IMLS funding with our Senators and Congressional representatives.

I know as a subscriber to this newsletter you already understand our mission and vision, which echo libraries across the nation. To paraphrase our own (mission statement), we are institutions that foster literacy and intellectual growth by providing free and equal access to programs, services, and collections. Please consider supporting this mission, and these truly democratic institutions nationwide, by following the links above.

Thank you for reading and advocating for your Library.