What are the opening hours?

Monday 9:30am - 5pm Tuesday 9:30am - 5pm Wednesday 9:30am - 5pm Thursday 9:30am - 5pm Friday 9:30am - 5pm

New York State Library

Home
United States
Albany, NY
New York State Library

Established in 1818, the New York State Library (NYSL) is one of the nation's oldest state libraries. Answering questions since 1818.

06/02/2026

The NYS Library’s Van Rensselaer Manor Papers collection comprises over 300 containers of documents in varying condition. Of this sizable collection, only four volumes of material have been translated and published.

Many documents from this collection were damaged in the 1911 Capitol Fire. In the hours after the fire, A.J.F. Van Laer and I.N. Phelps Stokes were among the first people to enter the Library with the goal of salvaging any damaged manuscripts that might remain. They sorted through four feet of still-smoking debris shovelful by shovelful, searching for any surviving scraps.

Today, the NYS Library continues to provide access to this invaluable collection through the development of an extensive finding aid, as well as conservation, transcription, translation, and digitization.

Read more about our work to make this fascinating collection available to researchers on our blog: https://nyslibrary.libguides.com/blogs/system/out-of-the-flames-the-van-rensselaer-manor-papers

06/01/2026

This weekend!

Get ready to roar at the NYS Library’s first-ever Super Story Party on Sunday, June 7, from 10 AM to 12 PM! Young readers and dino-enthusiasts are invited to celebrate their love of reading and explore this year’s Summer Reading theme of Unearth a Story with a seriously epic library party.

Join in on a rollicking good time as we uncover hidden histories and explore the paleontological past! Special guests and community partners include children’s singer/songwriter Johnny Only, magician Ron Cain, The RED Bookshelf, New York State Archives, New York State Museum, and the Talking Book and Braille Library.

Families attending the Super Story Party will leave with information and materials connecting them with this year’s Summer Reading Program and literacy learning at home.

Read more about the Super Story Party and register for the magic show at: https://nyslibrary.libcal.com/event/16799238

05/28/2026

Join us on Thursday, June 4, at 12:30 PM, for We the Dead: Preserving Data at the End of the World, a free webinar from the NYS Library.

In the late nineteenth century, the U.S. government and American corporations generated an unprecedented amount of paper records. The data complex emerged as a national network of repositories built to house all those documents. Over the next several decades, the data complex expanded from traditional archives and libraries to bombproof bunkers and securitized data banks. In the 21st century, some tech companies are working to build data centers in outer space, while others have figured out how to store backups of digital files in synthetic DNA. How did Americans become so obsessed with preserving data, and how is the data complex expanding and changing today? How is it changing us?

Presenter Brian Michael Murphy is Chair and Associate Professor of American Studies at Williams College, and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

For more information and to register, please visit our events calendar at: https://nyslibrary.libcal.com/event/16442797

05/27/2026

Don’t forget that in between visits to the NYS Library, you can access our excellent electronic resources 24/7!

Search for books and other materials held by the NYS Library in the catalog or explore our digital collections. To get started, visit: https://www.nysl.nysed.gov/elecres

05/26/2026

Calling all young readers and dinosaur-lovers: Get ready to roar at the NYS Library’s first-ever Super Story Party on Sunday, June 7, from 10 AM to 12 PM!

Celebrate your love of reading and explore this year’s Summer Reading theme of Unearth a Story with an epic library party. Join in on a rollicking good time as we uncover hidden histories and explore the paleontological past!

Families attending the Super Story Party will leave with information and materials connecting them with this year’s Summer Reading Program and literacy learning at home.

Read more about the Super Story Party, including our lineup of very special guests, at: https://nyslibrary.libcal.com/event/16799238

05/21/2026

Join us on Wednesday, June 17, at 12 PM, for The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, and the Making of American Independence, a free NYS Library webinar that tells the story of the American Revolution from inside the home.

Prior to the American Revolution, the urban centers of colonial North America had little direct experience of war. With the outbreak of violence, British forces occupied every major city, invading the most private of spaces: the home. Building on a stunning wealth of primary sources, Lauren Duval vividly captures daily life during the Revolution through the eyes and ears of those who intimately experienced it, showing how men and women of all races, statuses, and states of freedom understood its implications for their lives, families, and the nascent American Republic.

Presenter Lauren Duval is an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma and a historian of early North America specializing in women’s and gender history, family history, and the era of the American Revolution. She is the author of The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, and the Making of American Independence, which was awarded the Society for Military History’s Distinguished Book Award for a First Book.

For more information and to register, please visit: https://nyslibrary.libcal.com/event/16601059

05/20/2026

The NYS Talking Book and Braille Library works with the National Library Service to provide the free BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) service in New York State (outside of New York City and Long Island).

BARD allows you to instantly download digital books and magazine titles directly to the devices you already use, like smartphones, tablets, or computers. You won’t need to wait for physical books to be mailed to your home, and there's no waiting list for new and popular titles!

For more information on BARD and the Talking Book and Braille Library, please visit our website: tbbl.nysed.gov

05/19/2026

Did you know that the NYS Library is undertaking a long-term project to digitize the World War I Posters Collection found within our Manuscripts and Special Collections? This collection contains 3,600 to 3,700 posters dating from about 1914 to 1920.

Due to the importance of food rationing and Victory Gardens, several posters from this collection focus on the visual representation of food. Explore a cornucopia of food posters on our blog, from corn and carrots to the many merits of cottage cheese.

Read the full blog post at: https://nyslibrary.libguides.com/blogs/system/from-the-collections-the-depiction-of-food-in-the-world-war-i-posters-collection

05/18/2026

In case you missed it:

Read more about the great work taking place at the NYS Library (and across the state) by checking out the latest issue of News from the NYS Library.

Each month, we highlight treasures from our vast collections and connect readers with programs from the jam-packed NYS Library events calendar.

Learn more at: https://nysl.nysed.gov/newsletter

05/15/2026

Join us at noon on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, for The Ancient House: Constructing Community in the Seventeenth-Century New York Borderlands, a free webinar from the NYS Library.

Historian Erin Kramer will discuss how early relationships between the Dutch and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) shaped the development and significance of Albany, New York. Albany (called “the ancient house” by a Haudenosaunee orator) was an essential space where Indigenous people articulated what it meant for Europeans to settle in their world. This talk will illustrate how Haudenosaunee people shaped the town, its politics, and the laws enforced there through a century of negotiations, and how they sought redress and to hold colonists to their agreements.

Erin B. Kramer is an associate professor of history at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX.

For more information and to register, please visit: https://nyslibrary.libcal.com/event/16518635

Address

222 Madison Avenue
Albany, NY
12230

Opening Hours

Monday	9:30am - 5pm
Tuesday	9:30am - 5pm
Wednesday	9:30am - 5pm
Thursday	9:30am - 5pm
Friday	9:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+15184745355

Website

http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when New York State Library posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to New York State Library:

Shortcuts

Address
Telephone
Opening Hours
Alerts
Contact The Organization
Claim ownership or report listing

Want your organization to be the top-listed Government Service in Albany?