Online Grant Resources from Candid

Senior Librarian Michael Meyer will demonstrate two online products from Candid (formerly the Foundation Center) that are available at the New York State Library. The Foundation Directory Online provides accurate details on over 100,000 US foundations and corporate donors and over 2.2 million recent grants. Foundation Grants to Individuals Online is an online database of over 8,500 foundation and public charity programs that fund students, artists, researchers, and other individual grant seekers.

Space is limited and registration is required.

Location: New York State Library, 7th Floor Computer Classroom

Walking Tour of the Local History and Genealogy Resources at the New York State Library

The New York State Library is a treasure chest of resources for those tracing their family histories. Join us for a tour highlighting published genealogies, local histories, church records, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) records, United States and New York State Census records, newspapers on microfilm, city directories and more. Shawn Purcell, subject specialist for genealogy and local history at the New York State Library, will lead the tour.

The tour is limited to 15 individuals and registration is required.

Location: New York State Library 7th floor – meet in front of Genealogy/Local History/Equipment desk

Online Grant Resources from Candid

Senior Librarian Michael Meyer will demonstrate two online products from Candid (formerly the Foundation Center) that are available at the New York State Library. The Foundation Directory Online provides accurate details on over 100,000 US foundations and corporate donors and over 2.2 million recent grants. Foundation Grants to Individuals Online is an online database of over 8,500 foundation and public charity programs that fund students, artists, researchers, and other individual grant seekers. Space is limited and registration is required.

Space is limited and registration is required.

Location: New York State Library, 7th Floor Computer Classroom

Genealogy Online with FamilySearch

The NYS Library and the NYS Archives have partnered to become a FamilySearch Affiliate Library.  FamilySearch Affiliate Libraries have onsite access to digital microfilm data that is not available to researchers using FamilySearch resources from their home computer.  Senior Librarian Stephanie Barrett will demonstrate how to access genealogical records and family trees included in this database.  She will also demonstrate how to print and save records. 

Seating is limited and registration is required.

Location: New York State Library, 7th floor Computer Classroom

Author Talk: Kid69

Sandy McKnight is an area musician of note, but his latest project is a memoir recounting his amazing adventures in 1969, Kid69. As the world went a little mad in that tumultuous year, Sandy, just 15, left his Brooklyn home after being kicked out of school, and rented a studio apartment in the hippie Mecca known as the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Against a backdrop of a miracle summer (Moon landings, Amazin' Mets, and Woodstock) his adventures capture the zeitgeist of a unique time in history. A year that began with optimism and limitless horizons came crashing back to stark reality by December. It's a coming-of-age story, not only of a young man/boy, but of a society growing up, recognizing its truths, and reassessing its values.

Sandy will read a chapter from Kid69, tell amusing stories about his experiences, and take questions from the audience.

Registration is recommended but not required.

Location: Librarians Room, 7th Floor, Cultural Education Center

Erie Canal Book Talk and Gallery Tour

The Office of Cultural Education presents a gallery tour of the NYS Museum exhibit Enterprising Waters: New York's Erie Canal lead by Senior Historian Brad Utter, followed by a book talk, Everything Worthy of Observation: The 1826 New York State Travel Journal of Alexander Stewart Scott by author Paul G. Schneider, Jr.

A book signing will take place after the presentation, with books available for purchase, and Alexander Stewart Scott's original travel journal, which is now in the NYS Library's collections, will be on display.

Scott was a 21-year-old Canadian law-school graduate in 1826, when he set off on a combination vacation/family visit from Quebec City to Albany. From there, he headed to Wayne County in Western New York, and eventually Niagara Falls, with some of his trip taking place via the Erie Canal. Luckily for us, he recorded notes on what he had seen and done during his 110-day trip. He was a good writer and the 136-page diary is a good read, as historian Paul G. Schneider, Jr. found 190 years later, when he transcribed it in 2016. Schneider also researched Scott, life in New York State and Canada in the 1820s, and what it was like to travel in the U.S. fifty years after the founding of our country. Schneider's transcription, with his notes, has just been published as Everything Worthy of Observation: The 1826 New York State Travel Journal of Alexander Stewart Scott, and now the "good read" is an even better read.

Location: NYS Museum South Hall (Gallery Tour) and Huxley Theater, 1st Floor (Book Talk), Cultural Education Center