Library Attempts to Make Sense of New Realities

Library of the Chathams Director Diane O'Brien said she is pleased $4.3 million has been restored to New Jersey's libraries and said that money will definitely be used for the state's popular interlibrary loan service.

The service had been in danger when Gov. Chris Christie announced a budget that would have cut funds to libraries by 74 percent. Now that the money has been restored, the cut will total 43 percent.

A 26-person committee that features representatives from libraries across the state has been meeting to determine how to best spend the money returned to libraries. O'Brien said the committee has concluded the interlibrary loan service, which allows books to be delivered from one library to another, will remain in place.

O'Brien has said in the past that the service is one of the most valuable the library offers.

"It means that nobody's got to get in their car" if a book is out of stock in their home library, she said. Instead, they can request to have it delivered to the library they frequent.

"We've never seen a service ... as desired by people as this," O'Brien said.

Commercial reference databases such as ReferenceUSA will also be kept.

O'Brien said, however, that libraries still face challenges going forward. The cuts they faced, she said, were proportionally larger than other state entities had to absorb.

It is not yet clear whether a 2 percent property tax cap signed by Gov. Chris Christie last week will apply to libraries. In the past, libraries have been exempt from following such measures, but O'Brien said that could change.

Towns are also now required to contribute one-third of a mil to their library—which translates to 33 cents on every $1,000 of assessed value.

That measure creates a uniform requirement for municipal library support. O'Brien said she hopes it stays, since there is a chance it might be struck down.

"If that goes, we've got big problems," she said. "Any municipality that wants to underfund their library can do so. There's no reason that a library that's well supported by its town should become the library of the town next door that isn't being supported."