The Newburgh Free Library serves as the public library for the residents of the Newburgh Enlarged City School District

Newburgh Enlarged City School District

The Newburgh Enlarged City School District is a public school district located in Newburgh, New York. It encompassed all of the city of Newburgh, and most of the Towns of Newburgh, and New Windsor. The enrollment is 12,791 students in 13 schools in grades K-12. The district superintendent is Ralph...

. The Newburgh Free Library is the Central Reference Library for the Ramapo-Catskill Library System and is a member of the Newburgh Library Collaborative. In fiscal year 2010, the Newburgh Free Library had a collection of over 300,000 print and electronic resources.

Overview

The Newburgh Free Library is currently located in a four-story building overlooking the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

 at 124 Grand Street in Newburgh, NY

Newburgh (city), New York

Newburgh is a city located in Orange County, New York, United States, north of New York City, and south of Albany, on the Hudson River. Newburgh is a principal city of the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown metropolitan area, which includes all of Dutchess and Orange counties. The Newburgh area was...

. The library’s main goals are to “provide substantial print resources and traditional services and to secure the technology to make the library a globally relevant information center." Some of the library’s programs include the Homework Help Center, Parent-Child Workshops, a Heritage Festival for Hispanics, the award-winning Business Resources and Information Exchange (BRIX), computer training courses in the library’s e-Learning Center, and a local history and genealogy research room.

History

In 1852, the newly established City of Newburgh school system consolidated the city’s libraries—the Newburgh Academy Library, the Glebe School Library, the Newburgh Lyceum Society Library, the Mechanics Library Association, and the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Library—into one free, public library called the Newburgh Free Library. This would be New York State’s fourth public library and it would operate under the Board of Education. The Newburgh Free Library opened to the public on Nov. 6, 1852 in a schoolroom at the Newburgh Academy. It contained 2,001 volumes. Originally the library was only open on Saturdays from 2–3 p.m, but eventually, the library increased its hours to include Tuesdays from 7–9 p.m. for men, Thursdays from 1–5 p.m for ladies, and Saturdays 8 a.m. to noon for children.

In 1860, the city decided to build a separate building for the growing library, which now stocked 4,000 volumes. This building adjoined the high school on the corner of Grand and Campbell streets. Twelve years later, after the high school had merged with the Academy, the building was torn down and replaced by the Grand Street Elementary School. The Newburgh Free Library then occupied a room in a wing of the new elementary school.

In 1878, the library and its expanded collection of 10,421 volumes moved into the newly built high Victorian-style building at 100 Grand Street. The library now had a card catalog

Library catalog

A library catalog is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations...

 system; although, librarians retrieved books for patrons from closed-off stacks. It also extended its hours; it was now open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m, every day except Sunday and holidays.

In 1909, the library’s collection expanded to 36,075 volumes, 10,000 of which were lent by the United States government, as the library was, and still is, a part of the Federal Depository Library Program. To accommodate the library’s expanding collection, the Board of Education decided to enlarge the building by buying the property at 98 Grand Street for $8,500. In 1921, the library adopted the Dewey Decimal Classification

Dewey Decimal Classification

Dewey Decimal Classification, is a proprietary system of library classification developed by Melvil Dewey in 1876.It has been greatly modified and expanded through 23 major revisions, the most recent in 2011...

 system, allowing for open shelving and patron browsing.

In 1973, the Newburgh Free Library moved once again. With a growing population and collection, the Board of Education had a new library building constructed just north of the 1876 library building, at 124 Grand Street.

In 2010, the Newburgh Free Library formed the Newburgh Library Collaborative with the libraries at Orange County Community College

Orange County Community College

Orange County Community College, or SUNY Orange, is a unit of the State University of New York offering two year associates degrees. The College, with its main campus in Middletown, New York was founded in 1950, making it the first county-sponsored community college in the SUNY system...

 and the Curtin Library at Mount Saint Mary College

Mount Saint Mary College

Mount Saint Mary College is a private, co-educational, four-year liberal arts college, located in Newburgh in the mid-Hudson Valley region of New York State...

, making resources from these libraries available to the patrons.