The Bornt Branch Library is located in one of the neighborhoods in Schenectady with the most transient residents. Addiction clinics, government subsidized housing, and homeless shelters comprise some of the library's neighbors. Accordingly it is one of the neediest areas with high poverty and crime. Despite those barriers to service, the location opened February 2016 in a new building with services 51 hours per week and as a Family Place Library in the developmental stage. It received its Family Place Library designation May 2017 and it remains the first, and only, Family Place Library across our 9 location county system. Prior to COVID, families recounted numerous positive aspects to the parent/child workshop and increasingly used the Family Place Library as a destination. Parent and caregiver comments underscored that outside of the library, they rarely heard about the importance of play and its role in early literacy.
Since the pandemic, service and library usage is drastically altered. Story times at the Bornt Branch were offered virtually in 2021, exclusively. To go kits for pre-school children have been offered to library patrons and to local Headstart sites.