The towns of Hillsdale, Copake and Ancram , New York are located in Columbia County in the easternmost portion of the Hudson River Valley, near the western border of Massachusetts .  Overall, the terrain can be described as hilly, with rolling farmlands and woods.  The region is referred to as the “Roe-Jan” area, in memory of an early explorer.  The towns each consist of a village center of eighteenth and nineteenth century houses at its core, with newer neighborhoods in surrounding areas, farmland and young forest, and some new construction of larger houses on newly-developed land.  Busy New York Route 22 runs north and south on the east side of the towns, and the Taconic State Parkway is the major north-south route on the west.

Children attend schools in the Taconic Hills School District from kindergarten through twelfth grade.  The school complex is located in
Craryville, west of Hillsdale on Route 23

Settlement in the area came first by the Hudson River, then by the railroad up the Hudson River Valley, or from settlers moving west from Massachusetts and Connecticut to the east.  Workers are either employed locally in farming or light industry, or commute to nearby towns in the Hudson River Valley or Connecticut and Massachusetts.  It is about two hours by train to Manhattan and less than an hour to Albany.

The population of the three towns has been fairly stable.  According to a recent report in the press, population has shown no significant growth as measured by the Census.  A forecast prepared by the Capital District Regional Planning Commission foresees only modest growth by 2030 for the three towns.

In the absence of the official population projections based on demographic information from the new 2000 Census and for purposes of this discussion, the service population of the library will be considered as 6,535 people in the three towns in 2002, with an aggregate growth projection approaching 7,000 by the year 2022.  Factors to be considered include growth in the school population, availability of buildable land in town, and the economy of Columbia County and of the area.