The Entire Library From The College Of St. Rose Is For Sale

Back in 2024, after being an institute of higher education for more than a century, The College of Saint Rose in Albany shuttered for good. The shocking announcement came following the news of financial challenges at the institution, with a deficit of more than $10 million and a significant decrease in enrollment following COVID.

Well, chatter about Saint Rose has been increasing over the past few days, as a unique collection of items from the once thriving college in Albany is up for grabs.

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Saint Rose Library Titles For Sale

Just how many books do you have in your digital queue to be read, or sitting piled on a table in your home 'for one day'? Room for more? If you're up for adding more than 150,000 titles to your collection, do we have news for you, as the College of Saint Rose library contents could be yours (well technically, not really, unless you are part of an organization that can purchase the entire collection together).

Daniel McCoy, Albany County Executive shared the news on Monday February 9th:

There's even a post on bidnetdirect.com for the complete sail of the 'Neil Hellman Library Collection.'

How Is The Collection Being Sold?

As mentioned, Albany County is looking for proposals from people or organizations to purchase the entire collection and utilize the remnants of the library in a responsible way, the items will not be broken up for individual sale, or auctioned off.

Keith Levit

To clarify though, County Executive McCoy did also share:

The Archives of Saint Rose are not included. They were transferred to the Carondelet Consolidated Archives in St. Louis before the County ever purchased the property. Other books were also donated before liquidation, including materials that went to the University at Albany and institutions like the Albany Institute of History & Art.

What we’re talking about now is the remaining library collection, roughly 150,000 general collection books. We do have an inventory, and that spreadsheet has been with the Capital District Library Council since November. We’ve met with them multiple times to see if their member libraries had interest in a large-scale donation.

To learn more about the Saint Rose history, and 2024 closure, click here.