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LongWindedInNJ t1_j4wn1dc wrote

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the library system in NJ seems like a pretty well-run system. No? Other than higher pay for librarians, what else can be improved upon?

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Justatinyone t1_j4wzeud wrote

Library director here. TONS of things could be done for libraries. Aside from pay and staffing issues, many libraries are underfunded - usually where they are most needed.

Take the BCCLS system: 77 libraries from Bergen. Essex, and Hudson counties- an incredibly diverse clientele. Libraries in NJ must get a specific amount of funding - a minimum guaranteed by statute. That formula is the same for every municipality or county library, but as I’m not in a county system I’ll speak only about municipalities.

Some libraries are funded over that base amount, but many are not. It isn’t hard to guess which ones get extra money, and which do not. The ones who don’t cannot offer as many services to their patrons as well-funded ones do. They can’t pay as much to attract great staff. That inequity is keenly felt when you are trying to run a library and can’t meet the needs of your taxpayers, especially if you work with poor and underserved populations who, arguably, need the services a library can provide more than an affluent community.

Fortunately libraries share many resources, though that has its own hurdles as well.

The solution is, of course, more funding, but from where? New Jersey needs to step up for its libraries. In mine we feed people lunches and meal kits, run a free food pantry, teach English, help with citizenship classes, offer free tax prep, have a library of things (anything from sewing machines to telescopes to yard games to cake pans), have lendable laptops and kindles, and of course books, and programs for adults and children in multiple languages. Some of that is run via external organizations, donations, and partnerships, but a lot is on the backs of the library staff. Imagine what we could offer with better funding!!!

Please, support your libraries. Get a library card. Advocate at the local level by approaching your municipality at council meetings and fight for your library. No other place in American society is as free, open, and democratic as our libraries. They need you.

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brianbogart t1_j4ynp62 wrote

Adding to this as a library worker: at my library, when the pandemic shut everything down the first this we went to was “how do we get as many people internet (as in online) as possible, and how fast?” Kids without home internet or limited data plans that were suddenly home schooling, people put into a work from home environment that were unprepared, seniors suddenly cut off from the world. Libraries do a lot more shouldering of the burden than people see.

We ended up buying as many hotspots as we could afford and stretching out wifi almost a quarter mile in an urban center. The sad bit is we could have done more with money.

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Justatinyone t1_j5030ct wrote

Exactly. We scrambled to get as much for kids as we could - also in an urban library. We even set up wifi that could reach as far as possible so people could camp out in the parking lots and at nearby park.

We could have done more with funding.

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LongWindedInNJ t1_j4xzv27 wrote

Thank you for the info- what a great deep dive. I was ignorant to all the services they already provide and what they can still approve upon.

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resumehelpacct t1_j4xyqcy wrote

I think the book selection is pretty good, but I’d like to see a state wide bargaining with audio and e book vendors to expand selection, more access to items like 3d printing, board games, tools, stuff like that.

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