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January 18, 2010

West Long Branch library absorbed into county system

app.com
Jan. 13, 2010

by Carol Gorga Williams
WEST LONG BRANCH — On the Monmouth County Library's Web site, among the list of reading programs, movie listings, jazz concert schedules and tips on marketing your job skills in a difficult economy, is this minimalist request: "Welcome West Long Branch to MCL."

While many residents were enjoying the tail end of their holidays, the Borough Council on Dec. 30 voted 3 to 1 to adopt an ordinance that dissolved the local library system and allowed the Poplar Avenue facility to become a branch of the Monmouth County Library system. (The Monmouth County Freeholders had approved the measure a week earlier.)

Councilman John E. Hegarty dissented, saying he had grave doubts the borough would save as much as others have estimated. Councilman J. Thomas DeBruin, who supported the measure, said it would save borough residents about $400,000 in 2010. The borough still must pay to maintain the building, Internet access and the cost of periodicals, which DeBruin estimated at less than $50,000.

The West Long Branch facility had long been a member of the county library system, but borough voters cast ballots Nov. 3 favoring becoming a full-fledged county branch by more than a 2 to 1 margin.

County Library Director Kenneth Sheinbaum said the transition was going better than he initially expected, especially considering the last time a local library became a county branch was more than 30 years ago, long before computer software had to be part of the equation.
The county offered each member of the borough's library's staff a job with the county system: all but one accepted. Meg Rosenblum, formerly borough library director, will run things for the county as well.

Carol Herskowitz, vice president of the West Long Branch Library Board of Trustees, said the changes in the former borough library may be intangible. While the former local library permitted young well-behaved children to use the library without adult supervision, the county has a policy that such patrons should be supervised.
Now the county is trying to work it out to allow the borough policy to control, since it predated the transition, said Rosenblum.

"It is the kind of thing you can't put a price tag on," Herskowitz said of the borough library's way of dealing with its youngest patrons.

While West Long Branch will lose its Friday morning hours, it will gain a full day Saturday, Sheinbaum said. However, Herskowitz noted there was a particular reason why maintaining Friday morning was important to West Long Branch residents.
"We had many patrons who would come in on Friday mornings because of religious observances" that would make a Saturday trip to the library problematic, she noted.

Posted by tumulty at January 18, 2010 3:09 PM

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