South Salem, New York

Lewisboro Library (South Salem)

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

Learning enough Spanish for the cruise

We booked two weeks in Spain for the fiftieth, and my schoolgirl Spanish was 1968 vintage and mostly forgotten, and the nine weeks before the trip became, thanks to the chat program, the most fun I have had studying anything since. The setup is the whole trick. I told it to be my tutor, twice a week sessions, and to hold me to the following rules, conversations only about real things I would actually say, corrections after I finish a thought and not during, and every fifth exchange, teach me one phrase a tourist genuinely needs, like how to say I would like the check or where is the pharmacy, never the textbook things about the pencil of my aunt. The voice mode was the revelation. Speaking and hearing is where a language lives, and the machine's voice is patient beyond any human tutor, and I could be terrible at the same pronunciation eleven times, at ten at night, in my pajamas, and it carried on like the twelfth time was the first. Nine weeks got me exactly what I hoped for and not what the apps advertise. I could order, ask, thank, apologize, and get us to the train station, and in Seville a waiter switched to English and then, because I asked him in Spanish to stay with me in it, stayed, and we limped through a whole conversation about his daughter, and it is the memory I kept from the trip. Fluency is not on offer in nine weeks. Courtesy in two languages is, and the door it opens, with a waiter or a pharmacist or a new neighbor, is the entire point of the exercise.

AI, in plain English three small answers, no jargon

AI's energy bill

Large AI systems use real electricity and water, and companies are racing to shrink that footprint. Everyday queries are light; the honest answer is that the total is growing and being worked on.

Generative vs. everyday AI

Most AI quietly sorts and predicts: spam filters, map routes, photo sorting. Generative AI is the newer kind that creates text, images, music, and code. ChatGPT is generative; your spam folder is not.

What a ‘large language model’ is

An LLM is a word-prediction engine: given your sentence, it predicts a helpful continuation one piece at a time. That is why it writes fluently and still makes factual slips.

It is one of the oldest chartered voluntary libraries in New York State. In 1897, the library was reorganized as an association library and renamed the South Salem Library. It was housed in a one-room building owned by and across the street from the South Salem Presbyterian Church at 110 Spring Street. The Library received its absolute charter from New York State in 1903 to serve the Town of Lewisboro. From 1798 until 1964, the library was run entirely by volunteers. South Salem Library building at 15 Main Street, newly opened c. 1964 In 1964, a fundraising drive was started, the library purchased land, built its own permanent building in its current location of 15 Main Street in South Salem, and the first paid staff was hired. In 2008, the library was renamed the Lewisboro Library in recognition of the fact that the library serves the entire Town of Lewisboro and all its hamlets. The library was in need of modernizing and expanding its building to better serve its community.

From the library's own site, source.

Visit or contact

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 Lewisboro Library (South Salem) and we will count you in when we schedule one there.

Tell us you want a class here →

Two free AI classes for Lewisboro Library (South Salem)

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 Lewisboro Library (South Salem) — 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 →