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.