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March 31, 2008

Some of today's internet won't be gone tomorrow

Archivists are preserving web pages before they vanish into the virtual ether
Monday, March 31, 2008
BY J. SCOTT ORR
Star-Ledger Staff
The internet is the world's living, ever-evolving database, certainly the largest depository of information ever assembled.

But as it is assembled and reassembled, changing by the second, researchers are concerned that too often backing up is hard to do.

To some, nothing is older than a minutes-old web page (to update the old saw about a day old newspaper), but for others there is value in the web sites of yester-minute and archivists have been wrestling with means of preserving today's internet for tomorrow's scholars and researchers.

Without a working archive, these experts fear, future-generation web surfers might never know who Client 9 was or what topics were generating the most interest on Digg.com this week.

By virtue of its shear enormity and its warp-speed evolution, the task of archiving the internet in its entirety is clearly impossible, like trying to catalog every grain of sand on the world's beaches. But as it is easy to take a photograph of a beach, it also is possible to grab snapshots of the internet, or specific portions of it, to preserve for future generations.

And that's exactly what researchers at the Internet Archive, the Library of Congress, the National Archives and libraries worldwide are working on.

There have been some remarkable strides already, starting with the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet Archive and its Wayback Machine, where its creator hopes to build a sort of second coming of the Library of Alexandria, the long-ago destroyed institution that housed much of the ancient world's recorded knowledge.

The project has archived some 85 billion web pages on computers that measure data in unfathomably large quantities called petabytes.

"The average life span of a web site is about 100 days, so you have to be proactive about getting and saving them," said Brewster Kahle, who founded the nonprofit Internet Archive and began sculpting his vision of a working internet library in 1996.

"We knew that this was coming. You could tell that there was going to be an online digital world and we wanted to make sure there was a library built," said Kahle, who is as dedicated to his gargantuan task as he is unassuming in discussing it.
So, on a regular basis, the Internet Archive releases a robot program called the Heritrix, which conducts web crawls bounding about the internet collecting web sites by the millions.

Each crawl collects about 4 billion sites, which are saved in the Wayback Machine. Anyone can access the collection at archive.org, type in a site name and view archived past versions of it.

Initially funded by Kahle, the project has since received money from dozens of individuals and institutions -- including the Mellon Foundation -- and works worldwide with government agencies and libraries.

The robot crawlers collect only open public sites and those who don't want their sites archived can add a bit of code to block the bot.

The Internet Archive is happy to remove sites on request, though Kahle says webmasters are more likely to request that their sites be added.

Kahle, a geeky middle-aged internet pioneer who sold start-up companies to Amazon and AOL, said the Internet Archive has no endgame and its web crawlers will continue indefinitely collecting petabytes of data as the internet continues to dilate.

A LOT OF DATA

It can be difficult to wrap your brain around the enormity of a petabyte, which is about 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes.

"Science Grid This Week," a publication of the Fermilab, sums it up like this: If a byte is a single character on a keyboard and you typed one character per second, it would take more than 30 million years to create a petabyte-length document.

Another example: Say you had a fleet of personal computers and each one had a 50 gigabyte hard drive. You would need 20,000 of those PCs to hold a petabyte of data. So when the Internet Archive says it has 2 petabytes worth of data stored, that's one supersized library.

Still, it's just a fraction of the information stored on millions of internet servers around the world. And what doesn't get archived can end up disappearing forever into the digital ether.

Gregory S. Hunter, a professor at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science at Long Island University and one of the nation's leading experts on electronic archiving, agreed that some web sites are precious commodities that must be preserved.

Unlike Kahle's all-inclusive approach, most other archives are consumed with the often vexing task of determining what data is worth saving and what belongs in the digital dung heap.

Do we really want to preserve every teenager's MySpace page? Well, Hunter says, we may want to save some of them so future researchers can understand the phenomenon of social networking.

"It's very important that we preserve some web sites as evidence of what has been created, or what was happening at a given point in the past. Newspaper web sites are a good example. "It's a cultural question. We want to preserve things that reflect society in all its beauty and ugliness for future generations," Hunter said.

Hunter is the principal archivist for a project to build the federal government's Electronic Records Archive, which would preserve or "appropriately dispose" of any government electronic record.

The ERA, a project of the National Archives, passed a milestone in December with the successful test of its software system developed by Lockheed Martin.

Now comes the hard part.

"As archivists we think that by making appropriate judgments we can help sort out the wheat from the chaff. If we save every bit of information, what good would it do us? If we keep nothing, that would do us no good either. Archivists are trying to find that middle point," Hunter said.

ONE LIBRARY COLLECTION

Abbie Grotke, digital media projects coordinator on the web capture team at the Library of Congress, said the national library, home to some 30 million books and countless other items, also has been archiving select collections of web sites. It has archived thousands of web pages related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, everything from ABC News to Z Magazine.

"We do more focused crawls. We pick topics or themes to archive: the national elections, House and Senate web sites, the Supreme Court, we're doing an Iraq war crawl," said Grotke, who added that unlike the Internet Archive the Library of Congress has curators who vet web sites and get permission from site owners before making them publicly available.

So far, the collection totals a mere 80 terabytes (a terabyte is one-thousandth of a petabyte), but Grotke said it is growing daily as are digital collections at libraries around the world.

Major libraries from Australia to Scandinavia and the Internet Archive have come together to form the International Internet Preservation Consortium to develop standards and protocols for archiving online content.

"We're all grappling with the question of what to save and how to save it. We can't preserve everything, but we all realize that there is a lot of content out there that is worth saving" she said.

Scott Orr may be reached at sorr@starledger.com.

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March 29, 2008

More testing planned for county library site in Sea Isle

The Press of Atlantic City

By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, 609-463-6713
Published: Saturday, March 29, 2008

Cape May County officials authorized environmental testing at the site of a proposed new library in Sea Isle City on 48th Street, also the site of a former sewage-treatment plant.
Environmental engineers need to test the site further to determine whether any contaminants exist in the ground before a library can be built there, county Administrator Stephen O'Connor said.

"We don't anticipate any problems, but it will delay the project," O'Connor said.

The assessment and subsequent review could take five to nine months, he said.

Because the 48th Street site was formerly used for a sewage treatment plant, officials needed further study there before getting approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection to build a library, O'Connor said.

Freeholders this week authorized $41,000 to Garrison Architects for additional site investigation.
The building will also need approvals from the state's Coastal Area Facilities Review Act.

Sea Isle City officials selected the site on 48th Street from several options, including the site of the existing library on John F. Kennedy Boulevard.

The Sea Isle City library is one of two new buildings Cape May County is planning for county branches.

A new beachfront library in Stone Harbor is the other.

The buildings are about the same size - each about 11,000 square feet - and will include space for both towns' local museums. The buildings, which are funded through the county, are expected to cost about $9 million combined.

Because library funding is based on ratables, the two shore communities are the biggest contributors, each paying about $1.4 million annually.

County library officials worried about the possibility of losing them.

Avalon, the former highest paying municipality, left the county system, starting its own library in 2005.

In Stone Harbor, borough officials selected a site on 96th Street, overlooking the beach.

O'Connor said the county needs to negotiate with the state about the aesthetics of the location of the facility and its proximity to the beach.

Aesthetic guidelines would have the library set back farther away from the beach, although county and municipal officials want a waiver, he said.

"I believe we can justify a waiver based on it being a public facility with public access," he said.

The building will also need CAFRA approval.

Stone Harbor Mayor Suzanne Walters said she envisions a library where patrons can read a book and look out over the beach. The library can be its own draw in the borough, she said.

"We're hoping what it turns out to be is a destination for people," Walters said. "We're hoping the Stone Harbor branch can be the flagship for the whole county library system, and it can be an attraction of its own."

To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press:

BIanieri@pressofac.com

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March 27, 2008

Library looks for new home

By Keith Brown • Staff Writer • March 27, 2008

Asbury Park Press

TINTON FALLS — Knocked aside, excluded, and sometimes just outright ignored, the tiny borough library keeps plugging away at its decade-long attempt to secure new, larger digs.

Library supporters and their architect are scheduled to appear before the Borough Council at an upcoming meeting to discuss an ongoing feasibility study.

TINTON FALLS — Knocked aside, excluded, and sometimes just outright ignored, the tiny borough library keeps plugging away at its decade-long attempt to secure new, larger digs.

Library supporters and their architect are scheduled to appear before the Borough Council at an upcoming meeting to discuss an ongoing feasibility study.

The study, paid for by a state grant, is being conducted to determine the best size and composition of a new library building — something for which supporters have been trying to drum up support for the better part of 10 years.

The council meeting is scheduled for April 1.

"It just figures, doesn't it? April Fool's Day," said Rosemarie Tunnicliffe, library director.

Representatives of Dennis Kowal Architects of Somerville are scheduled to talk about progress toward a draft plan of a expanded library building.

Tunnicliffe said supporters are eyeing Tinton Avenue property between the Department of Public Works building and the new borough hall —roughly where the old borough hall building currently sits.

The library, which has occupied the same space since 1961, last year lent out 70,000 items to the borough's more than 17,000 residents. Library use since 2001 has increased 63 percent. The library receives an average of 126 visitors each day, but has accommodated up to 400, Tunnicliffe said.

The 3,000-square-foot donated house that serves as the library has long since run out of storage space. Its only two Internet-connected computers are so in demand that staff has set a 20-minute time limit per person on each, and its burgeoning kids summer-reading program routinely has to be held outside —weather permitting —under a borough-donated tent for lack of space inside.

It will be up to the Borough Council on how, when, or if, they will support building a new structure.

There are detractors, however. Several at previous Borough Council meetings have spoken against a new library, objecting chiefly to incurring the cost.

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Roving readers

Bookmobile is
Thursday, March 27, 2008
BY JOE TYRRELL
Star-Ledger Staff
In 1928, Elizabeth Turner was short of only one qualification necessary to become Hunterdon County's first librarian -- she didn't have a driver's license.

Once Turner passed a driving test, she was able to put the county library into high gear, or for that matter, into park. Her office, and the county's book repository, was an automobile.

It's a tradition that's still on the road in Hunterdon County. In an age when some communities position themselves as on-ramps to an information superhighway, Hunter don still passes on knowledge from hand to hand.

Some 18th- and 19th-century towns have their own small libraries, but of Hunterdon's three regional libraries, only one, on the outskirts of Clinton, has actual neighbors. The library's bookmo bile provides a link to outlying communities.

"The bookmobile really gives us that ability to go into parts of the county that don't have convenient access to our regional libraries," said Mark Titus, Hunterdon's library director.

"It's great that the bookmobile comes," said Bloomsbury resident Lisa Berg.

She and her 10-year-old daughter Samantha are regular visitors at the vehicle's stop in the parking lot of the Bloomsbury Presbyterian Church. "We can get pretty much anything we want," including Harry Potter books and educational materials for Samantha, who is home schooled, she said.

"It's a great convenience for us here in town," agreed Bloomsbury resident Tracy Moon. Her three children "get very excited to come over" and sort through books and DVDs, while she regularly picks out magazines as well as books.

"It's easy to get new releases here," Moon said, because the bookmobile is well-stocked with new volumes that do not shift to other library branches.

Dorothy McKinnon was picking up books for her grandchildren, who live next door in Bethlehem Township.

But the bookmobile's current edition is nearing the end of the road. After 17 years, 94,000 miles and a month in the shop last year, the county has authorized a replacement from the Ohio Bus Service of Akron.

Delivery of the new bookmobile will take about a year, according to Titus. Although based on models -- Hunterdon uses a 26-foot design -- individual orders are customized to the users' requirements.

Karen Case is celebrating her fifth year with the library, but her association with the bookmobile goes back further.

"I grew up with it," she said. "I lived in Kingwood when I was a kid, and it stopped there."

Others remember the bookmo bile, too, but question its modern role.

"I remember 65 years ago, when I was in elementary school in Tewksbury and the bookmobile came," said Freeholder George Me lick.

But Melick said the county's transportation system, known as the Link, has buses sitting idle "be cause there's no use for them in the middle of the day," he said. They could replace the bookmobile by bringing more people to libraries, he said.

That would mean "an expan sion of services," paying more to the private company contracted to operate the Link, currently Easton Coach, said Freeholder Ron Swo ren. While they could supplement the bookmobile, Link buses could not fill its "unique role" of bringing library resources to communities, he said.

With a 2007 operating cost of about $35,000, including staff, the bookmobile remains a cost-effective way to reach residents, according to library officials. They want to increase its workload, but the cur rent vehicle's creaky condition has limited its usefulness.

"When we get the new vehicle, we'd like to add some permanent stops, like senior citizen complexes where few people drive," said Floyd Saums, the library assistant direc tor.

Schedulers also could add more nursery school visits, where librarians hold story programs, he said. Already, the itinerary includes some community events, and more could be added in the summer, with a reliable vehicle, he said.

"We can't expand what we're doing right now because we want to keep this one going," Saums said.

While a traveling library may seem like an anachronism, Titus said the service is still right in step with Hunterdon County.

"We are a unique county in a sense that we are spread out," he said. From the days of the first bookmobile, Hunterdon "hasn't changed that much, even though the county has grown," he said.

Joe Tyrrell may be reached at jtyrrell@starledger.com or (908) 782-8326.

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March 26, 2008

Statewide Children's & Young Adult Author Conference

Meet the Authors is a Statewide Children’s & Young Adult Author Conference being held at the Woodbridge Public Library on Friday, April 11, 2008. Meet Tonya Bolden, Sarah Beth Durst, Marie Lamba, Kevin C. Pyle, and Michael Reisman at this all-day conference.

Please visit the NJLA site for more information and a registration form.

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Category: Children's Services

March 21, 2008

Camden County hires security for library protection

By JOSEPH GIDJUNIS • For the Courier-Post • March 21, 2008

HADDON TWP. — The smile and "hello" from the Camden County librarian is no longer the first greeting patrons receive at local libraries.

Instead, it's posted security officers searching bags and other belongings prior to entering.

Camden County has added a $313,000 annual layer of defense to protect the knowledge, technology and customers at its six branches.

Since Dec. 3, these officers, contracted through the Georgia-based U.S. Security Associates, are posted at every entrance to search purses, pouches and pockets before residents reach the circulation desk.

Beside the two security officers in the Haddon Township branch, the main branch in Voorhees has three guards and each additional branch has one.

"I think it's a little weird. They never told you why. It made me a little nervous," said Carolyn Vandegrift of Haddon Township and a regular at the local library branch. "When I come into a library, I want to know my kids are safe. Is it because someone has a gun, or is it because people are stealing? They're very hush, hush about it."

Linda Devlin, executive director of the Camden County Library System, characterizes the change -- costing 3 percent of its $9.2 million budget -- as a sign of the times.

"While some might view such measures as intrusive or a breach of privacy, the (Camden County Library) Commission was unanimous in its decision to be proactive rather than reactive," said Devlin in an e-mail statement.

Vandegrift isn't satisfied, and she asks why the security staff only searches people entering the facility, and not as they're leaving.

County spokesman Ken Shuttleworth said officers check for "potential dangers" like weapons.

Handling violent and disruptive library patrons is a constant concern throughout the country, said American Library Association Director Loriene Roy. The security discussion formerly concentrated on safeguarding books, but the focus has shifted to providing protection for customers, Roy said.

Michael Perelman, a Pennsylvania-based consultant specializing in library security, said these facilities are susceptible to violence and vandalism like any public property. Library staffs, which are predominantly women, are exposed to possibly violent offenders, pedophiles or psychologically-ill people, Perelman said.

"Librarians aren't trained through their academic work how to deal with these issues," he said.

While Camden County has pushed for security officers, Burlington and Gloucester counties have not.

None of Gloucester County's five branches have security officers, although four -- Greenwich, Glassboro, Mullica Hill and Logan -- have or should receive cameras soon, said its county library director Bob Wetherall. There are no plans for cameras at the Swedesboro branch.

"I wouldn't criticize them if they feel (the officers are) necessary, but I'd much rather spend money on materials for people to use," Wetherall said.

Of Burlington's eight facilities, only its main headquarters in Westampton has a security officer because of high foot traffic, said Gail Sweet, director of the county's library system. There are no plans to add security cameras.

But at the Camden Free Public Library, director Theresa Gorman said officers have been a staple for nearly two decades. There is always one officer on duty while the library is open. She expects a security staff presence to be more common in the future.

Manuel Paredes, director of the Cherry Hill Public Library, agrees. His library doesn't have any officers, but he wants them. They're too expensive.

"It's just so we can concentrate on the jobs we do, and they can concentrate on the safety of the public," Paredes said.

Other residents using the Haddon Township branch had mixed feelings about the increased security presence on Thursday.

"I don't know if it's a good use of resources because I never felt uncomfortable in the library," said Sharon Montgomery of Haddon Township.

But library regulars Alexandria, 84, and Robert Young, 87, said the officers are a smart addition because the officers act as a deterrent to crime.

Reach the Metro Desk at (856) 486-2401 or cpmetro@courierpostonline.com.

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March 20, 2008

LOGIN links Heggan library, others

By MIKE FRANOLICH • Courier-Post Staff • March 20, 2008

Courier-Post Online
WASHINGTON TWP. — Beginning this summer, without paying a fee per use and without paying a county tax, township library cardholders can begin borrowing from the collections of all Gloucester County Library System branches and from most other municipal libraries in the county.

The expansion is tentatively expected in June, when the Margaret E. Heggan Free Public Library's computer system and catalog are integrated with the LOGIN network, said the township library's director, Linda Snyder.

"This is so much easier for the customer to understand and to use. This is being done as a customer service," Snyder said.

Soon after the Heggan library signed up for LOGIN, so did the remainder of the county's municipal libraries -- in Monroe, Pitman and Paulsboro -- which were not part of LOGIN, said Bob Wetherall, director of the county library system.

"What you have now, essentially, is a countywide library card," Wetherall said.

LOGIN stands for Libraries of Gloucester/Salem Information Network. It is operated by SirsiDynix, a nonprofit in Huntsville, Ala., and its local members include the county library system and the Gloucester County College Library, library officials said.

The system offers wider and easier access to the catalogs of area libraries than the LOTS system, which Heggan is replacing.

From home, county residents will be able to search the catalogs of all freestanding libraries in the county as well as others. Once all the libraries are integrated with LOGIN, all library cardholders will have full privileges at each one, Wetherall said.

The Heggan library on East Holly Avenue joins the LOGIN system at a cost of about $19,000, which includes an annual fee of about $9,000, Snyder said.

The initial cost to join, about $10,000 for the Heggan library, varies from library to library and usually depends on how many book titles must be entered into the LOGIN system, library officials said.

Although they are all affiliated now through LOGIN, Heggan and all of the library systems remain independent of one another, officials said.

LOGIN breaks through an information barrier for township residents who can't borrow materials from the county system, which Washington Township withdrew from almost two decades ago. Homeowners in member communities of the county system had paid a separate county library tax.

"Now, instead of making a commitment to collect the (county library) tax or to be a branch or an association library, if you're willing to make a commitment to the joint (LOGIN) catalog, that's what opens the doors for you," said Nancy Polhamus, public information director of the county system.

Once it's up and running, Heggan's cardholders will have borrowing, reservation, hold and ordering privileges for all the county library branches -- in Glassboro, Greenwich, Logan, Mullica Hill and Swedesboro -- as well as all other municipally based libraries in the county as their catalogs are added to the LOGIN system.

Additionally, Heggan cardholders will have privileges at Gloucester County College and the Gloucester County Institute of Technology.

Reach Mike Franolich at (856) 486-2467 or mfranolich@camden.gannett.com

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Eatontown officials consider closing library as cost-saving

By Keith Brown • Staff Writer • March 20, 2008

Asbury Park Press

EATONTOWN — While officials look for a solution to a space crunch for employees at borough hall, some Borough Council members are eyeing the building currently occupied by the local library.

But officials aren't looking at moving the library, they're considering closing it.

I think the library's a nice little idea, but do we really need two libraries?" said Councilwoman Victoria Rau at a recent workshop meeting of the council. "Monmouth County library is just up the street — it's a great facility."

Rau proposed closing the library and moving some borough employees into the building, which is nearly contiguous to borough hall.

Rau, a newcomer and one of three Republicans elected to the governing body in November, said the council owed taxpayers to at least have a discussion about closing the library as a low-cost option to alleviate overcrowding in the current borough hall.

Rau presented the council with copies of a library Board of Trustees report that detailed the state of the library, which has just more than half the number of members as the Monmouth County Library Eastern Branch located just to the north in Shrewsbury.

The local library has 2,388 members, all borough residents. But the county branch library, counts 4,899 Eatontown resi-

dents among its membership, according to the report.

The report also shows that, by far, the most popular service — more than book rental — is its DVD rental service.

"I think one of the tell-tale signs is the number of DVD rentals is around 19,000," said Councilman John Schiels, a Republican, who added that he had some financial concerns about the library and its accounting.

The idea of closing the local library also seemed to have the ear of Councilman Carl Sohl, a Democrat.

"I think it warrants a look at it," Sohl said.

But Mayor Gerald J. Tarantolo, a Democrat, said if the council decided to proceed, it should do so with caution. Tarantolo said that it seemed only fair that the council have a discussion with the librarian to "get a complete overview" of the library's services and where it stands financially and culturally.

"The library has been there forever," he said. "It's an institution, and you just don' t get rid of an institutions without real good reasons."

Borough Attorney Gene Anthony said before any action was taken, the council needed to discuss the library's legal arrangement with the borough. Anthony said that would take place in a closed-door session.

Keith Brown: (732) 643-4076 or kbrown@app.com

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March 19, 2008

Paterson library's doors to the world in place

By ALEXANDER MacINNES, HERALD NEWS | 03/16/08 02:12 AM

Workers put the final touches on majestic Spanish cedar doors at the entrance to the Danforth Public Library on Broadway in Paterson. Library Director Cindy Czesak says the doors symbolize a fresh start. (elizabeth lara/Herald News)

Workers put the final touches on majestic Spanish cedar doors at the entrance to the Danforth Public Library on Broadway in Paterson. Library Director Cindy Czesak says the doors symbolize a fresh start. (elizabeth lara/Herald News)
PATERSON -- Librarians and literacy advocates around the Garden State agree that if the doors to a community library don't open, those who want to use its resources can't get in.

"We've been having problems with the doors for at least the last five years," said Cindy Czesak, librarian at Danforth Memorial Library on Broadway. "They would sometimes not open."

To resolve that problem, Czesak applied for a $90,000 grant from the state Department of Community Affairs to put in historically correct doors made of Spanish cedar at the library. The project would ultimately cost $115,000 and although there is no exact way to analyze price-per-knob costs throughout the city, the doors -- installed this week -- are probably the most expensive, and nicest, doors in Paterson.

In fact, Czesak says she hopes residents – buoyed by the architectural enhancement -- will start beating them down once they open later this month.

"I'm really looking at these doors as a symbol and I'm almost embarrassed that I'm this excited about getting new doors," she said, "because they're just doors -- but I'm looking at them as a beginning at expanding library services."

Proportionally, the rich wooden doors, with thick beveled-glass insets, take up a fraction of the building's expansive gray stone facade, but the change is quite dramatic, instant and captivating. Since 1967, those entering the library, often yanked open a set of jerky aluminum doors that befitted the entrance to an underground bunker instead of "a community living room" of a literary environment.

The new doors, paid for mostly by the DCA grant, are historically correct and comply with strict preservation requirements under the Paterson Historic Preservation Commission that dictate how the landmark building can be altered. The architect, Dennis Kowal of Somerville, based his work on 1905 designs from Henry Bacon, the library's original architect, who also designed the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Kowal said the biggest challenge in designing the new entrance was fitting the frame, which stands 14 1/2 feet high and spans 7 feet across. A second set inside the foyer blocks an even larger space -- 14 1/2 feet high and 11 feet wide.

Beyond that, Kowal, who has completed preservation work for the New York City and Hoboken public libraries, said board members can sometimes go for a cheaper solution in putting in new doors.

"When a community builds a public building, they represent the values of the community at that time," Kowal said. "Obviously, the city put a lot of value in the library to have hired such a prominent designer ... It's a nice statement in his time to say we still value the same thing."

Reach Alexander MacInnes at 973-569-7166 or macinnes@northjersey.com.

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Libraries working on book-in-the-mail plan

Gloucester County Times

Wednesday, March 19, 2008
By Pete McCarthy
pmccarthy@sjnewsco.com
Those who use Gloucester County's libraries could soon get their books and other materials in the mail.

They could even return them the same way, but would have to pay for postage.

Officials are working out a system that would make it possible to take items placed on hold either in-person or through the Internet and have them shipped through the mail.

It should be available starting in June.

"People are just so busy today with so many activities, we want to save their time," said Bob Wetherall, director of the Gloucester County Library System.

Other items, including DVDs, CDs and books on tape would also be available from the library.

The program has been funded by a $50,000 grant, which will cover initial costs, but users will have to pay return postage. Wetherall said he predicts it would cost about $2.40 to mail back an average-sized hardcover book.

Materials can also be returned to any library in the county.

This new plan is also beneficial to those who do not have transportation, Wetherall said.

To place a hold on a book or other item, residents can go to www.gcls.org and click on "library catalog." Some new releases may not be available through the mail.

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March 16, 2008

Mayor starts library inquiry

Asbury Park Press, March 15, 2008
NEPTUNE CITY — Mayor Thomas Arnone said he is starting an inquiry to see if it is cost-effective for the borough library to be part of the Monmouth County Library system.

The study, Arnone said, is the latest attempt to cut spending, in light of a projected $191,000 reduction in state aid this year.

Arnone said Wednesday that he wants to appoint an ad-hoc committee to study the issue.

"We have to follow every avenue," he said.

Arnone said the committee would look into what is paid to the county now, what that buys, and what the costs would be if it were not part of the county system.

"I want to see what the actual costs are, not of running the library, but what the cost is to the county and what benefits we get by being part of the county system," he said.

Arnone said that closing the library is not part of the plan.

Bill Bowman: (732) 643-4212 or bbowman@app.com

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March 13, 2008

She could be the 'Super Librarian'

The Times of Trenton
Saturday, March 08, 2008
By MICHELE ANGERMILLER
Special to the Times
In the early 1970s, Norma Blake was on a career path to be a teacher.

The highlight of her day, she said, was the library period. She en joyed it so much that she decided to quit teaching and work in a pub lic library.
I never looked back," she said.

Blake's passion for books and the Dewey Decimal System has landed her national recognition as the Library Journal's 2008 Librarian of the Year. The title is one of the most prestigious national awards in the profession.

They have done this for 20 years, and I'm the second state librarian to receive this honor," she said, noting that the last state librarian selected was from Utah in 1998.

Blake is New Jersey's state librarian, working for the New Jersey State Library at 185 W. State St. in Trenton. She is responsible for developing new programs that build collaborations among various communities to extend and expand library services in the state and be yond. She oversees the information center next to the Statehouse on West State Street and the Library for the Blind and Handicapped in Ewing, and works with all of the other libraries in the state.

During her seven-year tenure, she has created programs supporting businesses and developed literacy skills, as well as extending pub lic access to library materials in all communities.

"Rarely has Library Journal been blitzed with as much impressive evidence of the contribution of one librarian to innovation that converts formerly skeptical citizens, politicians, and other public servants to the view that strong libraries are central to the future of their states," wrote the journal's Editor-at-Large, John N. Berry III, in a feature article that ran in the January issue of the publication.

Blake's colleagues nominated her in secret, along with 13 letters supporting her nomination from leaders in the library and the business and academic sectors of New Jersey.

"It was very much a surprise," she said of the honor. Winning the award, she said, will help shed some light on what state libraries actually do.

As an example, she points out that the New Jersey State Library offers services such as the largest accessible law library.

Of course, there are perks. As Librarian of the Year, Blake will go out and spread the word about New Jersey libraries. "I can't think of a better job than that," she said, adding that she was invited to give a speech in Frankfort, Germany. "It's a good product, and telling people about it makes it easy. What's not to like about libraries?"

Blake grew up in Moorestown, and still lives there. She received a bachelor's degree in English from Montclair State University before taking a job teaching adult education and then junior high school. She went on to earn a master's in library science from Rutgers University. Since then, she worked her way up through several small libraries before taking on director ships in South River, Gloucester County and Burlington County Library System, the largest in New Jersey. She became state librarian in 2001.

An example of one of Blake's pet programs is the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative, or NJKI, a way of bringing information infrastructure to New Jersey's businesses. In short, if a small business needs to collect articles from journals for research, they may have to spend up to $30, and that adds up, especially if they are charging it on credit cards. Blake secured $6 million from the legislature, and had the library negotiate licenses for a dozen high-end databases in "time- embargoed materials."

"We took $6 million and bought $74.5 million worth of licenses for two years," Blake said proudly. "We have had 15 million downloads in two years. The program was so successful it won the State Government's 2007 Innovation Award."

Blake also spearheaded the state library's first marketing campaign using a "Super Librarian" character.

"This was aimed at tweens and teens, helping them see that librarians are accessible people that solve life's problems and help with their homework," she said.

As part of the campaign, a "Super Librarian" comic book contest was implemented, in which teenagers could create their own comic strip back story using the character, or a YouTube video. Nearly 17,000 votes were tabulated and the winning comic strip was published and distributed to all New Jersey library branches. The 2007 winner was Sharon Scaife of Cinnaminson.

The campaign was so popular that Blake was contacted by librarians from Australia wanting to use the image.

Blake's colleagues describe her as a "library missionary," buoyed by a drive to promote libraries and all its benefits.

"That's what is so great about Norma," said Nancy Dowd, direc tor of marketing for the New Jersey State Library. "She sees a great idea and says 'Let's go for it,' and because of her, New Jersey libraries are innovative beyond belief."

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Book Lovers Ask, What’s Seattle’s Secret?

NY Times, March 9, 2007

Ten years ago, Nancy Pearl started a program for public libraries here that she hoped would get adults excited about literature. It was called, “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book.” Free copies of “The Sweet Hereafter,” a novel about a tragic school bus accident, were distributed to individuals and book clubs. Posters encouraged people to read the book and discuss it at library-sponsored events.

The novel became the top-selling book in the area. But Ms. Pearl’s program received little national attention despite its success. “We just weren’t on the map then,” Ms. Pearl, who is a librarian, said.

Today, her name is familiar to book lovers from coast to coast. She attracted attention in 2003, when she published “Book Lust,” a guide to must-read books. A few years later, a sequel to that book coincided with her promotion to national book commentator on National Public Radio.

While she doesn’t have as much clout as Oprah Winfrey, authors tell Ms. Pearl that her recommendations cause book sales to jump. She even has an action figure modeled in her likeness — a Seattle novelty company has sold more than 100,000 of them. (The toy makes a librarian’s shushing sound.)

In many ways, Ms. Pearl’s rise in the book world parallels Seattle’s rise in the publishing world. Though the big publishing houses are still ensconced in New York, the Seattle area is the home of Amazon, Starbucks and Costco, three companies that increasingly influence what America reads.

Books by relatively unknown or foreign authors become best sellers by dint of their anointment at the hands of Amazon editors. A forgotten older paperback, recommended and featured by the book buyer at Costco, can sell more copies in six weeks than it did in the last few years combined. Almost every book Starbucks stocks in its coffee shops sells more than 100,000 copies in its outlets alone. That pushes most Starbucks selections into the top 1 percent of all books sold that year, without counting sales in other types of stores.

The three companies settled in Seattle for different reasons, and each had its own motivation for choosing to sell books. Together, though, their combined power in the book industry has put the city in the position of tastemaker.

Each company, in its own way, “guides their customers, by selecting the books they will see,” Ms. Pearl said. “New York may publish the books, but Seattle significantly defines America’s reading list.”

INDUSTRY trends suggest Seattle’s influence will keep growing. More people are bypassing bookstores and buying at mass-market merchants, online retailers and specialty stores, says Albert N. Greco, a marketing professor at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business Administration.

In the last two years alone, sales of consumer books sold through such nontraditional outlets grew by more than $260 million, Professor Greco said. The presence of Costco, Amazon and Starbucks ensures that “Seattle will keep making an impact on what we read,” he said.

When Kim Ricketts, founder of a book promotion company in Seattle, visited the big publishing houses in New York last month, she said she was repeatedly asked for advice on how to do business with the three Seattle heavyweights: “Publishers want to find the golden ticket — how to get their title beloved by one of these companies.”

Seattle’s literary seeds have been here for decades, with local authors, abundant writing courses and robust independent bookstores, according to J. A. Jance, the Seattle mystery author whose books have sold 15 million copies over the last 20 years. “Maybe it’s the rain, but Seattle has always been a reading town,” she said.

Over the last 10 years, the city has spent nearly $200 million to improve its libraries, including the new downtown showpiece designed by Rem Koolhaas and completed in 2004.

This love of books even seeps into the town’s corporate cultures, says Ms. Ricketts, who 10 years ago started organizing author visits for employees at Microsoft, Starbucks and other companies in the area. “The authors were always shocked at how big the crowds were and how many books they sold,“ Ms. Ricketts remembers.

The town’s enthusiasm for books may have made it easy to find well-qualified employees, but Amazon, Starbucks and Costco each occupy a different niche in the book world.

Starbucks started offering books to enhance the coffee-house experience, thinking that customers would enjoy spending more time in the shop if they had a provocative read and conversation starter to go along with their coffees and scones. They also hoped it would increase spending by each customer.

Starbucks sells just one title at a time, usually for a period of two to three months. The selections bear little resemblance to one another. Some have been almost unknown; others were already best sellers. The latest title, “Beautiful Boy,” focuses on a father trying to help his drug-addicted son.

“We wanted to find extraordinary books that would encourage people to discuss compelling issues” like war, hope, faith and family, said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment.

With suggestions from the William Morris agency winnowed down by a three-member team, which may review up to 100 books a week, Mr. Lombard puts the final stamp of approval on the single book Starbucks will feature in 7,000 stores.

Professor Greco said that when Starbucks chooses a book, “there’s definitely a buzz.”

“A million people may glance at that book cover every day as they buy a cup of coffee,” he added, “so the awareness of that title goes up pretty dramatically.”

In 2006, the Starbucks Entertainment content team, which oversees music and movie selections as well as books, moved to Los Angeles to be closer to Hollywood. But Mr. Lombard, a Seattle native, still splits his time between the cities. He said that no matter where the team works, the book choices will continue to reflect the company’s ideals of encouraging reading and exchange of ideas.

“And those ideals are pure Seattle,” Ms. Pearl said.

IN contrast to Starbucks and its one-book-fits-all strategy, Amazon works on a microlevel, using editors’ picks and customers’ buying histories to influence one reading list at a time. Much is going on behind the scenes when one of Amazon’s 72 million active customers logs on.

Jeff Bezos moved to Seattle to found Amazon in 1994 because the Pacific Northwest was a nerve center of the growing technology industry. “Amazon is the personification of Seattle,” said Daphne Durham, an editor at the company whose background includes a master’s degree in literature and time behind the counter at a bookstore. “It’s a big tech company built on the old-fashioned book.”

The “editorial team” there, a group of four men and three women, mostly in their 30s, constantly reviews books and recommends its favorites. Computer programmers create suggestions based on algorithms of what people have bought in the past.

And, of course, publishers pay Amazon to promote their books through advertisements.

When a customer logs on to the Web site, “a personalized bookstore” appears, displaying ingredients from all three sources to help her find what she might like, says Tom Nissley, an Amazon editor.

Customers also flock to “best of” lists sorted by genre, subject matter and other categories like “beach reads” or “books on Iraq,” which rotate on and off the site. When one editor came across a little cartoon book called “Cat Getting Out of a Bag and Other Observations” and put it on last summer’s “Best of the Year So Far” list, it went out of stock almost immediately.

Although Amazon team members may have typically Northwestern passions (like a fondness for recycling, fleece and outdoor activities), they need to be universally perceptive in their recommendations so they appeal to every consumer demographic.

The editors can also create a level of national excitement for previously unknown books and help propel them to best-seller lists. When “The Savage Detectives” was chosen for Amazon’s monthly Significant Seven list in May 2007, sales skyrocketed; Amazon was responsible for more than 50 percent of all copies sold. The author, Roberto Bolaño, was well known to Spanish-speaking readers, but the Amazon editors introduced him to English-speaking ones.

Amazon’s computer programmers also influence what America reads by creating paths that lead readers from one book to another. A buyer of “Harry Potter” books might receive a recommendation to read “A Wrinkle in Time,” or “The Golden Compass.” These suggestions become the virtual bookstore employee who “hand sells” or recommends a book to customers, based on what they have already read.

The connected books can rack up robust sales. When a cookbook, “Deceptively Delicious” by Jessica Seinfeld, became popular, Amazon let readers viewing the title online know there was a book promoting a similar concept, called “The Sneaky Chef,” and its sales took off as well.

FOR its part, Costco offers a relatively small, hand-picked selection to its millions of cardholders. On the book tables in the middle of its 383 warehouses nationwide are just 250 titles. When a title makes it to Costco, however, it generally sells in vast quantities.

Jeff Rogart calls on Costco’s headquarters outside Seattle four times a year for HarperCollins. “Costco’s visibility in publishing has risen to the level of Barnes & Noble’s and the other big chains,’ ” he said, adding that much of that climb could be credited to Pennie Clark Ianniciello. Costco’s book buyer since 1994, Ms. Clark Ianniciello stocks the latest best sellers but also “has an uncanny knack for leading customers to buy books, for molding their taste,” Mr. Rogart said. “She seems to know what they’ll enjoy discovering.”

Recently, Ms. Clark Ianniciello chose the 2004 paperback “Mr. Lincoln’s Wars” as her Pennie’s Pick of the month. Sales at Costco were “phenomenal,” Mr. Rogart said, surpassing in one month the number sold nationally in the last three years; the company would not supply exact figures.

Ms. Clark Ianniciello, like buyers at other major book retailers, may weigh in on other aspects of a book before it is published. “We have five seconds to grab the attention of the Costco member scanning the table,” Mr. Rogart said. “If Pennie and her team say that a book won’t catch the customer’s attention, we will look at the cover design again.” A book’s on-sale date may be adjusted based on their views as well.

Along with best sellers and paperbacks, Ms. Clark Ianniciello stocks cookbooks, children’s books, coffee table books, reference titles and others ripe for an impulse buy. With these titles, she often works with publishers to add something special just for Costco, like packaging colored markers with a coloring book so it’s a one-stop pickup for a parent planning a road trip.

“It’s what Costco does,” she said. “The appliance department may ask for an extra-long cord to be included on a vacuum we sell; I do it for our books.”

She also tries to secure exclusive offerings for her customers by going to international book fairs and finding titles that Costco can license as limited-time, exclusive English-language versions. At the other end of the spectrum, she stocked so many copies of the final “Harry Potter” book that local bookstores were buying copies at Costco warehouses because they had run out themselves. “The bookstores still made a profit on those copies,” she said proudly.

Costco has become so successful at selling books that it has become a hot spot on the author book promotion circuit. Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, and Bill Clinton have signed books in Costco warehouses.

The flip side of the success of the big Seattle booksellers is the gradual decrease in the number of small independent stores, which have struggled as a result of a variety of factors.

Ms. Jance mourns the loss of the opportunities that such stores provided her as a new and struggling writer. “I used to set up book signings at all the local stores, get to know the staff, clientele, and word-of-mouth helped sell my books,” she said. “Now it’s harder for new authors to do the grass-roots marketing that can help propel their success.”

Book lovers as well as writers miss the corner bookstore. But Americans are busy, and if they can pick up the latest book while they’re stocking their pantry, sitting at their computer or going out for coffee, it saves them valuable time, said Brian Jud, author of “Beyond the Bookstore: How to Sell More Books Profitably to Non-Bookstore Markets.”

They just may not realize that someone in Seattle helped them choose it.

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Library in public's hands

Courier-News
By JARED KALTWASSER
STAFF WRITER

SOUTH PLAINFIELD — The borough council has voted to revive "Democracy Day," asking residents to help decide the fate of a proposed new library.

The decision passed Monday by a 4-2 party-line vote, with the council's Democrats accusing the Republican majority of ducking their decision-making responsibilities.

Three years ago, the council, then under Democratic control, began working with the borough library board on plans to replace the cramped, 6,200-square-foot library at 2484 Plainfield Ave. The borough bought land on Plainfield Avenue near the South Plainfield Funeral Home, at 2456 Plainfield Ave., to house the new library.

Initial estimates priced the new library at $3.5 million, and officials expected a quarter of that money to come from a state library grant. In late 2007, former Democratic Councilwoman Kathleen Thomas presented the final plans for a 15,000 square-foot library to the borough council, and by then the cost had increased to $4.5 million, with no grant money expected, because of state cutbacks.

As her term ended, Thomas urged the incoming Republican majority to bond for the money needed to complete the library, saying the planning was almost finished and warning that the cost of building supplies would only increase if the council waited. But Monday, the council chose instead to put the matter to a nonbinding public vote.

"If the borough wants the library, the library will get built," said Councilman Ray Rusnak, a Republican.

The vote will effectively resurrect the borough's fabled "Democracy Day" tradition in which the public votes on all municipal expenditures over $1 million. The formerly annual event was started by the Democratically controlled council in 1995, but a "Democracy Day" has not been held in several years.

In bringing the event back, the GOP will morph it into "Democracy Week," giving residents five or six days to come cast a ballot at borough hall.

Thomas, who is also a member of the library board, said "Democracy Day" was unnecessary because the public had had sufficient input on the project, in the form of public hearings and planning meetings. She said too much time and money had been spent on the project to halt progress now.

"Democracy Day is a great idea, and it's great to solicit the public's input," she said, "but not when you've already done that."

Thomas said the public won't feel the new debt because it would coincide with other borough debts being paid off.

But resident Jake Cataldo said he was still concerned about the impact of the $4.5 million on the borough's residents.

"As a senior citizen in this community, we can't absorb any more tax increases," he said. "So what you're doing is you're actually chasing people out of town."

Thomas was at the meeting with library board President Eric Aronowitz, who asked the council if they would follow the public's nonbinding recommendation. All council members agreed that they would build the library if the public approved it, but the council's two Democratic members and the borough's Democratic mayor made a point of saying they supported the new library regardless of the vote.

"As an elected official, it's my job to take action when I feel there's a need," said Councilman Raymond Petronko, a Democrat.

He said he respected the voters' "intelligence," but "we're up here to make decisions."

Councilman Joseph Scrudato, also a Democrat, agreed, saying he was "dead set" against holding "Democracy Day" for the library."

It will likely be May before a vote is taken on the project. Councilman Matthew Anesh, a Republican, said he doesn't think the delay will hurt the library plan, and said he trusts voters to understand the consequences of their votes.

Jared Kaltwasser can be reached at (908) 707-3137 or jkaltwasse@gannett.com.

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March 11, 2008

School gets hundreds of new books

Asbury Park Press, March 11, 2008
MANCHESTER — How many library books can $10,000 buy? Three hundred twenty-five, plus a few computers, to be exact.

That is the number of new books Manchester Township Elementary School was able to purchase for its kindergarten through fifth grades with a $10,000 library and media center enhancement grant from the OceanFirst Foundation.

The books were on display during a recent open house at the media center. Students, staff, and township and school officials were invited to browse through the newest additions to the media center collection, which now numbers 13,000 books, said Mary Henderson, media specialist at the school.

"The books are a welcome addition to our collection," said Henderson, who displayed the new books on tables. "It costs about $20 for each library-bound book."

"We were lucky to be able to buy so many at one time. We also used the grant to buy two desktop computers for the library and one laptop that I can put on a cart and bring from classroom to classroom to teach lessons via an overhead projector," she said.

The school was one of 116 in Ocean, Monmouth and Middlesex counties that applied for the bank foundation's 2007 grant program. Manchester and Ridgeway elementary schools, both here, each received $10,000 grants, said Frances Scudese, principal at Manchester Elementary.

Henderson said in her grant application that she would buy elementary school-level books that will help children learn about manners, civic responsibility, patriotism, the voting process, community service, and local, county, state and federal governments.

"We want our students to learn about the rights and responsibilities they have as citizens, but first they need to learn the very basics — manners and values," she said.

Henderson said she also selected biographies about people who made a difference in the world.

Scudese said $10,000 is a large amount of money for an elementary school to receive to buy library materials.

"An elementary school can do a lot with that kind of money," she added.

Two members of the school's Impact Club, whose members do community service, assisted during the open house and looked at the new books.

Grace Teeple, 10, said she loves books and reading and easily found a biography about Gen. George S. Patton Jr., whom she called her "favorite soldier."

"I have a really thick book about him at home in my room," she said as she paged through the new book in the library.

Sam Lychock, 9, said he likes Dr. Seuss books, but he took a look at a book about Milton Hershey, the chocolatier.

Sam said he would rather do research in the library using books rather than on a computer.

"I looked up Teddy Roosevelt once, and teddy bears kept popping up on the computer," he said. "With a book, you find the title and open the book up, and the information is all in one place."

Some of the new titles include "School Rules," "What Freedom Means to Me," "A Flag for Our Country," "Out and About at City Hall," "Knowing Your Civil Rights," "The Copper Lady" and "The Liberty Bell."

Bonnie Delaney: (732) 557-5738 or bdelaney@app.com

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Blackstone CEO donating $100 million to New York Public Library

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) — Blackstone Group LP Chief Executive Stephen A. Schwarzman is donating $100 million of his own fortune to the expansion of the New York Public Library system.

The Central Library, a 1911 Beaux Arts structure on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, will be renamed for the Wall Street financier and library trustee.

Schwarzman’s gift is among the largest to any cultural institution in the city. It will fund the transformation of the Central Library into a book-borrowing destination.

In a report on The New York Times’ Web site, Schwarzman says he was impressed by the $1 billion expansion project. The 61-year-old says it’s a “first-class, professional, practical strategic plan.”

The gift is expected to be formally announced Tuesday.

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March 10, 2008

Library card opens world

Jersey Journal
Monday, March 10, 2008
Letters to the Editor
The Jersey Journal
In Wednesday's editorial, the subject of "analog people" - people who find it difficult moving into the Digital Age - are soothed in two ways: "compared to the safe, simple confines of sequential living and a library card."

A library card?! Library cards at the Jersey City Free Public Library have been of the plastic variety since 2000. What I mean by "plastic variety" is that the library card is no longer cardboard, and its plastic resembles that of a credit card, complete with bar coding and the need for a PIN (Personal Identification Number) to access the online library catalog and other library services, such as HomeworkHelpNJ (through Tutor.com) and MyLibraryDV (on-demand video programming). The Jersey City library system was the first in New Jersey to offer this service to its patrons.

Libraries have been automating since before the turn of the 21st century. In fact, libraries are very 21st century, providing access to public computers and computer training, thus making sure the less-advantaged are not left on the wrong side of the Digital Divide.

Another fact: The Jersey City Free Public Library, a 119-year-old system, has been in the computerization forefront since 1994, when the Computer Learning Resource Center opened in the Miller Branch Library during my tenure as branch manager. Since then, while serving as library director, two other Computer Training Centers have been opened - at Five Corners and the Main Library - to sell-out crowds, so to speak.

I invite The Jersey Journal (and everyone!) to explore the research capabilities of the New Jersey Room - right from your offices at "30 Square" - on the Digital Highway regarding the first settlers of Jersey City. The grant, the Dutch Immigration Project (a collection of Dutch documents from the 18th and 19th centuries) - supported in whole or part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, and administered by the New Jersey State Library, an affiliate of Thomas Edison State College - has made available the digitizing of images for The Changing Face of New Jersey: The Immigration Experience From Earliest Times to the Present.

All you need is a valid library card - of the plastic variety, with a bar code and PIN. Come join our 151,046 (as of March 5) Jersey City library card members! To do so, please visit our Web site: www.jclibrary.org.

PRISCILLA GARDNER LIBRARY DIRECTOR JERSEY CITY FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY

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March 7, 2008

Database shutdown stings small businesses

Friday, March 07, 2008
BY JEFF MAY
Star-Ledger Staff
The shutdown of a state-funded information service that provided free access to medical and trade journals has been a blow to biotechs and other small businesses in New Jersey.

Officials of the State Library had hoped to find $1 million in funding to keep the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative running, but it was suspended Feb. 28. The online service provides links to 12 databases, with access to scholarly texts such as Nature and the Journal of Applied Microbiology, and was used by businesses, colleges and universities.

The NJKI was critical for keeping abreast of the latest medical and scientific developments, according to Kathleen Mullinix, chief executive of WellGen, a biotech based in North Brunswick. Subscriptions to scholarly publications can run hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars per year.

"It's a very powerful and unusually cost-effective way to help small businesses, and now it's gone," Mullinix said. "We are suffering because of this."

Business leaders have expressed concern the service shutdown sends a mixed message about the Corzine administration's goal of promoting high-paying research jobs.

Debbie Hart, president of BioNJ, a trade group for the state's biotech industry, said members had lobbied to restore funding in recent months. In a letter to Gov. Jon Corzine last December, the organization fretted the service might be lost permanently if allowed to lapse.

But Hart said she was encouraged Corzine has earmarked $2 million in funding for NJKI in his austere fiscal 2009 budget.

The State Library had requested $3 million, according to State Librarian Norma Blake, and the smaller amount still has to survive the legislative process. The earliest the service could be restored is June.

Legislators had trimmed $1 million of $3 million allotted for the program last year, which left only enough money to operate the service through February.

Blake said she's received complaints from small businesses in the past week.

"We are starting to hear from more and more former users, even though it was suggested that they explain to the governor and their legislators how important this program was to their business," Blake said in an e-mail.

The NJ Knowledge Initiative was founded in 2005, and was the first service of its kind in the nation. Since then, at least five other states have expressed interest in starting similar programs, Blake said.

Jeff May can be reached at jmay@starledger.com or (973) 392-4282.

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