July 1, 2009

Millville library says next chapter requires more cash

By JOEL LANDAU • Staff Writer • July 1, 2009

MILLVILLE -- Mill-ville Public Library is requesting extra money from the city as it tries to provide more services, including increased computer access.

The library's Board of Trustees also has established two committees in preparation for a new building.

The board passed its budget proposal for 2010 at its May meeting. It's asking the city for $684,680, an increase of $33,680, or slightly more than 5 percent, from the previous year.

The spending plan includes a 3 percent increase for staff, higher maintenance costs and a proposed 10 percent increase ($2,750) in utilities. The library doubled its number of computers from eight to 16, and usage is up 400 percent over last year, according to Library Director Irene Percelli.

The board usually asks for a 1 or 2 percent increase, but felt the larger request is necessary to continue the library's current programs, Percelli said.

"We want to close the gap on what we get from the city and what we really need," she said. "We keep losing ground every year; we can't keep doing that. We have to close the gap."

The total proposed budget is $731,405. The board projects $27,225 from the state and $19,500 from fees, fines and video rentals.

The library board also has established a fundraising committee and a second committee for planning a new building.

It's working with the firm Library Development Solutions in Princeton to develop a feasibility study for a new building. The board is in the process of reviewing the draft and will finalize it at a future meeting, Percelli said.

"If we are lucky enough to get a new building, it will come from a variety of sources," she said.

Vice Mayor Joe Derella, the city's director of revenue and finance, said officials are receiving budget proposals from all departments and will make their decisions in the next few months.

Derella said he hasn't reviewed the library's proposal, but said the city will work on a budget that maintains the municipal tax rate and is in the best interests of the city's residents.

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Amid criticism, Rutgers officially drops 'Library Studies' from school division name

Amid criticism, Rutgers officially drops 'Library Studies' from school division name

By SERGIO BICHAO • STAFF WRITER • July 1, 2009

RUTGERS — University officials on Wednesday closed the book on a controversial move to drop the words "Library Studies" from the name of its School of Communication, Information and Library Studies.

As of Wednesday, the school will be known as the School of Communication and Information, or SC&I, pronounced "sky," the university said in a statement.
The Rutgers Board of Governors approved the name change in April after a faculty vote of 30-10 in February endorsing the change.
Officials said the name change was needed to provide a clearer identity for the school that teaches broadcasting, public relations, journalism and library studies.
Opponents viewed the change as a snub to library studies, arguing that a name change would break the library community's ties and identification to the school.
The school, which has commonly been referred to as SCILS, was established in 1982, merging the library and journalism programs.
Dean Jorge Reiana Schement said all of the school's programs would remain in place.
SC&I offers three undergraduate programs in communication, information technology and informatics, and journalism and media studies. It also offers master's degrees in communication and library and information science.

Sergio Bichao: 732-565-7256;

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June 30, 2009

Good news comes in threes for L.B. library

Atlantiville News June 25, 2009

Virtual career center will be state model
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH — The Long Branch Public Library has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the New Jersey State Library.

The grant was given to the library on June 9 to implement, strengthen and expand the capability of library staff in the areas of job seeking, unemployment and related services to library customers.

These services will include a model career center computer lab, a virtual career center and in-person as well as virtual training in the use of online resources.

Long Branch Library Director Ingrid Bruck said that the grant money is one of three pieces of good news the library received in June.

"We had three pieces of good news recently," Bruck said. "We got the grant money, but we also found out that New Jersey Natural Gas [NJNG] will be purchasing some computers for $10,000 and that the state will use our virtual career center as a model on the statewide level."

Bruck explained that the grant funds will help people qualify for jobs in the community.

T he money will ultimately be used to fund a teacher and state-of-the-art computers to help with the training class.

"The state library funded a teacher so we can have classes for people without jobs," Bruck said. "We got the grant so we can use it on a teacher and equipment."

Bruck said a teacher has not been officially named yet.

The class will begin in the middle of July and run 16 weeks. There will be 12 people attending the class, according to Bruck, and the goal of the class is to get people re-employed.

"The focus of the class will be helping people getting back to work," Bruck said.

The 15 new computers will be purchased using the grant money to replace the computers purchased by NJNG.

Bruck said replacing the computers was very necessary.

"The computers were seven years old and inadequate," Bruck said. "They didn't have USB ports and couldn't burn CDs. Things we really needed.

"Now we will have state-of-the-art computers to assist people," she added.

While the grant money and the career center news was somewhat expected, according to Bruck, the news about NJNG was a surprise to her.

"New Jersey Natural Gas taking our computers for $10,000 was a surprise," Bruck said. "We didn't expect that to happen at all."

The news of the grant and the upcoming class go hand in hand with the news about the virtual career center being used as a statewide model.

"Anyone in the state can use our virtual career center," Bruck said.

Bruck explained the focus of the career center.

"We take resources and bring them to the Long Branch level," Bruck said. "We make some of these resources accessible to the community."

What the career center does is link job seekers to various helpful resources in the community, such as places to apply for jobs and links to the local universities.

"We have about a 100 links up there," Bruck said. "We make everything local.

"You go on and apply for a job at Kmart because Kmart is a store in our community," Bruck said. "We took a big haystack and made it navigable.

"We have links to classes at Monmouth and Brookdale because those are the universities in our community." One of the aspects of the career center that Bruck is most proud of is the work that Diversity and Literacy Coordinator Tanya Badillo has done.

According to Bruck, Badillo has done a lot of work with the career center especially helping out with making it accessible for minorities.

"For Latinos in the community it may be harder for them to find jobs," Bruck said.

Also, the library is a place where ex-offenders come and look for opportunities.

"Ex-offenders come to the library a lot with no jobs and no money," Bruck said.

With the economy being down, the library has seen a boom in popularity.

"We have about 2,500 users each month use the computers," Bruck said.

She noted that the career center was not a reaction to the down economy.

"We were ready in August before everything crashed," Bruck said. "No one expected it to be as bad as it's been.

"We hope to get people back to work."

The library has worked with the Long Branch Concordance, as well as Monmouth Medical Center and Monmouth University in forming a committee to help people during the economic downturn.

More information about the library and the career center can be found at http://www.lmxac.org/longbranch/.

Contact Kenny Walter at

Kwalter@gmnews.com.

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June 26, 2009

Secaucus library planning to add international flavor

Thursday, June 25, 2009
By JENNIFER KIM
SW STAFF WRITER

Secaucus Public Library officials don't just talk about embracing the growing diversity of the community. They've allocated more than $50,000 in the temporary 2009 budget to prove it.

Slightly more than $52,000 is in the proposed budget for its World Language collection, which includes books, newspapers, magazines, films and reference materials in languages other than English. Library Director Jenifer May said she's not sure how much the new materials will cost; or how much will be allocated in the final budget.

May said a growing number of Secaucus library patrons want to learn English or improve their English language skills, or prefer to read or listen to books in other languages.

"Our library has a very diverse user population. Many of them can and do read and speak English, but they are more comfortable doing leisure reading or personal research in another language," May said.

The temporary budget was presented at the library's Board of Trustees final meeting June 16.

"This is an ongoing process, but in tentatively planning the budget, we wanted to ensure that we were allotting enough resources to the collection to get it firmly established," said May.

In other news:

The library announced the hiring of Danielle Bonito, Danielle Kickey, Madelyn Perez, Drue Zapolach and Alexis Corcoran to part-time summer positions. May said the new hires are high school and college students who will be assisting with shelving, special projects and light clerical work.

"We usually hire a few students each summer to do these tasks," said May. "This summer we did slightly increase the number of summer hires over last year. We don't have a staff shortage, per say, but we do like to bring in summer help to round out the schedule during the popular summer vacation weeks."

Panic buttons were installed recently in the director and assistant director's offices as an extra security resource to alert the police in case of an emergency.

"The installation wasn't a response to any current issue, or a precaution against any anticipated threat," May said. "I just feel that all staff - myself included - should have an alternate way of contacting the police and 911 in case of an emergency situation, in which using the telephones is not the best option."

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June 25, 2009

Corzine and Duncan's Fanwood Visit: A Look Back

ScotchPlains-Fanwood Patch

By Lindsay Wilkes-Edrington |
Big events don't happen often in Fanwood, so Tuesday’s visit from Governor Jon Corzine and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was particularly exciting for the small town.

The two leaders were at Fanwood Memorial Library to support a new national service initiative and to promote summer reading, but for local residents in attendance, the real treat was watching them read to children.

“Everyone here like reading?” Corzine asked the few dozen young children crowded around him as he sat down to read.

“Yeah!” they shouted in response.

The governor and secretary took turns reading pages out of two books: The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner and How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Mark Teague.

"I've heard about wide-mouthed politicians, but holy cow," Corzine said as he opened the first book.

The children listened intently during the 20-minute story time, while parents, educators and media stood by. Afterward, Corzine and Duncan posed for photos and signed autographs for children.

Karen Zikas, and her daughter, Lina, were one of several local families that came on Tuesday. Zikas said she received a call from the library last week inviting them to the event.

"I thought it was really interesting to see famous people," Lina said with a wide smile on her face.

Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr was by Corzine and Duncan’s side for most of the event. On several occasions, she expressed how exciting it was that they had chosen to come to Fanwood.

“We love our library, and are thrilled that the White House and Secretary of Education and the governor understand and look to Fanwood to be one of the leaders,” she said. "This is a real acknowledgement of all the good work that Fanwood has done.”

Prior to the reading event, Corzine and Duncan met with librarians and education leaders from across the state to talk about the importance of libraries in New Jersey and across the nation.

Assemblywoman Linda Stender, Congressman Leonard Lance, New Jersey Education Commissioner Lucille Davy, and the president of the American Libraries Association were also in attendance.

Corzine and Duncan mostly stayed silent as they listened librarians and educators talk about the need for more funding, better technology and a commitment to keeping libraries in the schools.

Duncan said he thinks libraries are the key to keeping students learning beyond the regular school year, and that he worries we aren’t doing enough to expand learning opportunities outside the classroom.

“I have two little guys at home, and they love going to libraries,” he said. “It’s so fun to see them love to do this. Our kids need more learning time. Our school year is too short. I worry a lot about summer reading loss. I worry a lot about kids who are in disadvantaged homes. How do we extend learning time during the weeks, days, summers?”

Another issue discussed was the important role libraries play during this tough economy with helping residents save money, search for jobs and get resume-writing skills, among other things.

In these tough times, though, libraries are increasingly taking a hit themselves.

Lianne Bennett, a librarian at Kirby Mill's Elementary in Medford, said that she had her budget for books cut by 50 percent this year.

“I think it was nice to hear what they had to say, but I’m not sure we got as much feedback as we would’ve liked,” Bennett said. “School libraries need to be staffed with certified librarians. You need to have people who know what they’re doing to help kids professionally.”

Fanwood Librarian Dan Weiss said after the event that he thinks the message got across to Corzine and Duncan about what the most important issues facing libraries are, and that he’ll be interested to see what happens now.

“I think it's very unusual to have that much access for such a long period of time,” Weiss said. “It's great."

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