Kent, New York

Kent Public Library

Two free 90-minute AI classes for your patrons — no presenter fee for the library.

Voice mode, for the days your hands disagree

Between the arthritis and the cataract surgery, 2024 was the year I nearly gave up on the computer entirely. What saved the whole business was discovering that you can simply talk to these programs, and they talk back, and nobody's hands are needed anywhere. On a supported app, open voice mode and speak like you would to a person across the kitchen table. How long do I roast a five pound chicken. What does this word on my insurance letter mean, and here I can even hold the letter up to the camera on some programs and ask it to read the small print aloud. In supported apps such as ChatGPT and Gemini, you can interrupt spoken replies instead of waiting for the answer to finish. That option depends on the app and device, not just the internet connection. Interruption is what makes it feel human. My weekly ritual has become Sunday supper conversations. I talk while I cook, asking the program to tell me about Marseille or the Dust Bowl or how a refrigerator works, the questions I used to save for nobody. My hands stay in the flour where they belong. Two cautions from a year of this. In public, use the earbuds, because you will look like a person chatting with an invisible friend, which at our age is a reputation risk. And remember the microphone rule from the old cop shows, anything you say can be stored. I keep the medical and the money out of it. But for recipes, letters I dictate, letters it reads back to me, and Sunday questions, my voice has bought back my computer.

AI, in plain English three small answers, no jargon

AI as a midnight tutor

A patient tutor available at midnight is genuinely new. AI explains a concept five ways and quizzes you until it clicks; it can also be wrong, so keep asking how it knows.

Why AI makes things up

A hallucination is the AI filling a gap with fluent invention. It is not lying; it is predicting plausible words. The defense is asking for sources, then actually checking them.

AI and bias

AI learns from human-made data, so human biases can ride along. Responsible teams test and correct for this, and you help by reporting answers that feel slanted.

Starting in the early 1960s, Wilma Baker and a group of dedicated volunteers organized meetings, petitions, letter writing campaigns, rummage sales, membership drives, book sales, and dances in order to establish a library for the town of Kent. These volunteers founded the Kent Literary Association on May 24, 1963. The first Kent Public Reading Room was a part of Edna Stadler’s Curio Shop in Lake Carmel on Chauncey Road and moved to share a building with Gladys Boalt’s Fabric and Crafts Shop on Smadbeck Road (now Rt. 52). On May 25, 1967, the association was granted a provisional charter by the Education Department of the State of New York as the Kent Free Public Library. The library purchased the other half of the building on Smadbeck Road on August 24, 1972. On September 26, 1987, by unanimous vote of the Kent Town Board, the library changed its status from an association library to a town public library, effective January 1, 1988.

From the library's own site, source.

Visit or contact

  • Address: 17 Sybil's Crossing, Kent Lakes, NY 10512
  • Phone: 845-225-8585
  • Website and hours: kentlibrary.org
  • System: Mid-Hudson Library System

Hours change with the season, so we link the library's own site instead of copying a schedule that could go stale.

Get an AI class here

Path one: ask the library directly. Patron requests carry real weight with program coordinators, and their website and phone number are linked above.

Path two: tell us you want a class at Kent Public Library and we will count you in when we schedule one there.

Tell us you want a class here →

What you’ll find there

  • Museum passes
  • Notary services
  • Free Wi-Fi
  • Printing, copying, scanning

Collected from the library’s own website. Availability changes — confirm details on their site.

Two free AI classes for Kent Public Library

Live, beginner-friendly, 90 minutes each. Your first two classes cost $0, including the presenter fee — bring us in, see how your community responds, then decide.

For library staff

Reply “send dates” to our email and we’ll send available times within a day. Or start here:

Email us for available dates →

No presenter fee. No contract. You provide the room, chairs and wifi — we bring everything else.

How booking works · browse all six class topics (no email needed)

I’m a patron of this library

Want a class here? Leave your email and we’ll tell you if one gets scheduled at Kent Public Library — and pass the count to their program coordinator.

One email only when scheduling news exists. Or call the library and say you’d attend — patron requests carry real weight.

Heard about us from a neighbor? Forward this page to whoever books programs at your library.

Is this a sales pitch to our patrons?

No. Nothing is sold or pitched in the room, and patrons never pay to attend. Take-home materials are free.

What’s the catch on “two free classes”?

None, and here is the model: your first two classes cost you nothing, we collect attendance and feedback, and the next library books us because yours proved it works. Repeat classes after that are a modest honorarium sized to your budget.

What do we need to provide?

A room, chairs, and wifi. We bring the projector, adapters, a backup hotspot, printed handouts — every attendee leaves with a printed AI cheat sheet.

Library AI Courses teaches free, live, 90 minute AI classes at public libraries across the region. A listing here is a directory entry, not an endorsement by the library. Classes get scheduled when a library books one or enough patrons ask. Library staff: how booking works →