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July 9, 2010

Library cheers $6.6M grant

nj.com
Friday, July 09, 2010
Matt Fair
STAFF WRITER
TRENTON -- As something of a salve to the sting of state budget cuts, New Jersey State Library officials announced yesterday they have received $6.6 million in grant money to help bolster technology offerings.

Officials with the library, on West State Street, said it will be a boon to the nearly 500,000 unemployed New Jerseyans who have come to rely increasingly on public libraries as they search for jobs.

"This grant will help to pave a road to economic recovery for our state," Norma Blake, the state librarian, said in a statement issued yesterday. "New Jersey job seekers are facing a job market in which access to computers and broadband internet is a basic requirement for job searches, employment applications and workforce skills training."

The money comes as the state library system is facing a loss of $6 million in the recently adopted state budget. The library's budget fell by nearly half from $14 million to just under $8 million for the current fiscal year.

The $6.6 million in grant money includes $5.1 million provided by the U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration as part of the American Recover and Reinvestment Act economic stimulus bill.

An additional $1.5 million is being provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The federal money is part of $404 million in grants that were announced by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke earlier this week.

The money will be spent over a three-year period, adding computers at 124 libraries, upgrading connectivity at 79 libraries, and providing job search assistance, employment skills, workforce development programs and other online resources at 365 libraries.

"One of the most important things we're doing right now is offering services to job-seekers and helping with the unemployment problem," Blake said. "Seventy-five percent of the libraries across New Jersey right now have said their main jobs are helping the job seekers."

Officials said they've seen a large boost in library use since 2007 when the economy first started to sour, including a 9 percent jump in attendance at programs, an 8 percent increase in the use of public Internet, and a 14 percent rise in circulation.

The funding announcement represents a stunning turnaround for the library, which is affiliated with Thomas Edison State College. Both institutions had been slated to be folded into the operations of Rutgers University as part of Gov. Chris Christie's original budget proposal.

The two managed to maintain their autonomy in the budget deal that legislators hammered out over the last few weeks.

As much as a blessing as officials have said the funding is, they also said it was something of a curse as the award requires the cash-strapped entity to put $2.4 million of its own money into a budget line that was going to be eliminated. That money would have gone to support other library functions.

"We're making it up in other ways, so we had to take losses in other areas," Blake added. "Getting this grant, we cannot afford to let that budget line go."

Contact Matt Fair at mfair@njtimes.com or at (609) 989-5707.

Posted by tumulty at July 9, 2010 9:12 AM

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