New Jersey State Library

I had the wonderful honor and opportunity to attend and speak at the grand opening of the Regional Technology Assistance Center at the New Jersey Library for Blind and Handicapped. The center offers state-of-the-art technology and resources for people with visual impairments. Located at LBH headquarters in Trenton and operated by the NJ Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the center represents a partnership between the State Library and the NJ Department of Human Services that has been enhanced by a generous private sector contribution from the Comcast Foundation, which provided $20,000 to buy a SMART board and additional technology.

LBH staged a great kick-off event for the center, and we were gratified that so many people attended and that the local media covered the event to help get the word out on this new resource that will provide the visually impaired with computer training to help them at work, home and in the general community. My special thanks to all those who helped LBH Director Faith Lundgren to officially open the center and who spoke to the audience at the event including Vito DeSantis as CBVI’s Executive Director, Anne Kohler as NJ Department of Human Services Deputy Commissioner and Kimberly Smith as Regional Director of Community Affairs for Comcast.

• The Mid-Atlantic Futures Conference, which the NJSL helped to organize and participated in a few months past in Atlantic City, was such a success and so vital to libraries, I am convening a Blue Ribbon Futures Panel. The State Library recognizes that it is imperative to have input from the people who are shaping the future of New Jersey’s libraries. Everyone in the Library community is welcome to apply, including NJSL staff, and the deadline to apply is August 15, 2007. Ultimately the panel will make recommendations to me, which will be discussed at the next NJLA conference.

• Despite relentless efforts on the part of the State Library, we have not been able to restore a million dollar cut in NJKI budget by the State. Presently there is enough money to continue the program with access to all the proprietary databases until the end of February 2008. However, our efforts continue. There is a meeting scheduled for July 30 with Executive Director of Higher Education Jane Oates to discuss the next steps for the program. Meanwhile, NJKI continues to garner national and even international recognition. NJKI is one of 11 finalists for an Innovation Award from the Council of State Governments and a presentation will be made at their conference in Quebec City in mid August.

• Our marketing campaigns are going well. The “Three Reasons You Love Your Library” campaign includes billboards, train station posters and bus placards. In fact, a Thomas Edison State College trustee mentioned that he saw the train station poster in Newark for the “Three Reasons” campaign and was drawn to it, only to discover it was a New Jersey library project. He was very complimentary. The next statewide campaign will be “Solving Life’s Little Problems”, something that libraries do very well.

• There is a new phone system at the State Library for the first time since 1986. It goes into operation on August 1, 2007. The directory of new telephone numbers with extensions will be available on our website and the new general number is 609-278-2640 although the existing main numbers will remain in place indefinitely.

• The State Library is contracting with the Northeast Document Conservation Center on preservation workshops and preservation surveys of libraries, with the focus on public libraries due to the funding source. Library Development Bureau Consultant Michele Stricker is receiving further training to provide other in-state workshops on preservation.

SPOTLIGHT ON ROB ZANGARA

Say hello to a real Jersey guy, Rob Zangara, head of New Jersey State Library’s Information Technology Department. He was born in New Brunswick and went to Rutgers to pursue degrees in English and Political Science. After becoming a publishing house editor, Rob was discovered to be the most technologically advanced person on staff. As his technical expertise grew, Rob gravitated to TMP, the parent company of Monster.com. Fortunately for NJSL, Rob got tired of working in Manhattan.

Rob is a real music buff with very eclectic tastes – jazz, alternative rock, international music, etc. Rob use to play golf but finds that he spends most of his leisure time with his first loves, his wife Heidi and his two boys, Dean and Theo.

Rob and his family have seen much of the USA, particularly Oregon, California, South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming where he and family visit relatives. He also enjoys the Island of St. John where he was married. Rob’s all time favorite trip was to Italy, where he hopes to take his boys someday, as he found the Italians to be very child friendly.

People sometimes stereotype technologists as techies who only speak to other techies in some kind of language that is foreign to the rest of us. The people who do this have obviously not met Rob Zangara and his wonderful IT team at NJSL!

• On June 29, News12 kicked off its new On the Road series by featuring the New Jersey Library for the Blind and Handicapped. Anchorman Tony Caputo taped three segments at LBH headquarters in Trenton, which aired live and included interviews with LBH Director Faith Lundgren and other staff members. Customers, volunteers, services and the outreach efforts of the library were featured in different segments. Just a few hours after the broadcast, a Readers Services Advisor reported receiving the first call from someone wanting to register who had just heard the program.

• LBH continues to meet and plan with NJN, our broadcast carrier of Audiovision, to address needs and concerns about the transition of television broadcasting to a digital format in 2007. This change will necessitate that new receivers be provided to Audiovision customers so that they may continue to receive the LBH 24 hour radio programming.

• NJLBH sponsored the 4th Annual Disability Law Conference held in conjunction with the Office of the Attorney General, New Jersey division on Civil Rights. This year the focus of the conference was “Protecting the Rights of People Who are Blind or Visually Impaired.”

• Norma Blake, State Librarian, has instituted a “Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future” to continue the groundbreaking work begun by the Mid-Atlantic Library Futures Conference.  The State Library recognizes that it is imperative to have input from the people who are shaping the future of
  New Jersey’s libraries.  To serve on this panel, interested staff  from NJ Libraries need only complete the application found at the New Jersey State Library website: http://www.njstatelib.org/News/news_item.php?item_id=674 and return it by August 15, 2007 to Peggy Cadigan. 

• ·         New Statewide Databases Access:  Access to all statewide databases is available through the Jersey Clicks portal effective July 3, 2007.  In addition, a list of the individual database URLs for libraries to link from their websites is available.  LDB staff is providing a list of the Facts on File databases libraries will need to delete from their websites unless the library is paying to subscribe to them for their customers. For the list of databases see: http://www.njstatelib.org/LDB/databases . 

• ·         Get a Library Card Online allows potential library customers to register for a library card on the web. Get a Library Card Online was conceived by the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative, which implemented a State Library funded pilot project, with 14 QandANJ participating libraries, to create and test this service. The pilot libraries have successfully used this new service for 18 months; more than 120 libraries are currently participating. Our goal is that all
  New Jersey public libraries will make Get a Library Card Online available to their customers in the very near future.  For more information see http://www.njstatelib.org/LDB/GALCO/.   

• ·         $200,000 was awarded by the NJSL to fund literacy programs at 11 public libraries across the state. For details on the literacy leadership grant program and the grantees, see http://www.njstatelib.org/News/news_item.php?item_id=685  

• ·         Update on NJKI Funding: The State of
  New Jersey budget for FY08 will provide $2 million to continue the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative. This is one million dollars less than is needed to continue the program at its current level. The intent of the State Library and the NJKI Task Force is to continue all NJKI databases for as long as the $2 million will last, which we expect to be until February 28, 2008, assuming vendor/publisher agreement. 

• NJSL presented a highly successful multimedia display in the Halls of the U.S. Congress highlighting innovative services LBH provides to the blind, visually impaired, deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. The State Library earned the opportunity to present its exhibit based on a winning proposal submitted to the American Library Association, which sponsored the event as part of its 2007 Annual Conference in Washington D.C  
   
• The unceasing work of the State Library is reflected in the fact that the marketing department issued 11 news releases reporting on important grants recently awarded to NJ libraries, new programs supported by the Library and promotions within the staff that resulted in positive articles published in local, state and national trade publications. Recent news items that have gained attention can be viewed at NJSL news page http://www.njstatelib.org/News/ 
   
• The Marketing Department continues its efforts as it follows through on two of its major campaigns. The campaign that asks “What Are Your Three Reasons” (why you love your library) has literally hit the road this past month with the placement of highway billboards, train station posters and bus placards. The Teen Video/ Comic contest reflecting the theme of “Why You Love Your” Library continues. The contest will continue to the end of the year. All librarians are asked to encourage their teen and “tween” customers to participate for a chance to win a free MP3 Video player.

• Digitization - The New Jersey Documents Collection received a new scanner through an IMLS grant. Library staff is using it, along with Adobe Acrobat 8.0 software, to create archival files from older Jerseyana and New Jersey Documents in the subject areas of immigration, migration, ethnicity and race. The 8.0 version of Adobe Acrobat is the first version to provide an archival .pdf, now an international standard. The scanned documents will be linked from the State Library web site www.njstatelib.org/cyberdesk  to our online catalog and is available on the New Jersey Digital Collections web page. They are also linked from the
  New Jersey Digital Highway http://www.njdigitalhighway.org. Some of the titles are: “What is Ethnicity?” - Howard Green, “Blueprint for a Drug Free New Jersey” – Thomas H. Kean (Governor), “I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired” – New Jersey Division on Civil Rights, “Trenton’s Foreign Colonies” – John S. Merzbacher, “Looking Back: Eleven Life Histories “– compiled by Giles Wright and “Arrival and Settlement in a New Place” – Giles R. Wright. 

• New brochure - Library staff members are producing  a new brochure that highlights the services and resources of the research Library. This new glossy brochure will be included in all outreach materials for the coming year. A new service is highlighted that allows people beyond
  New Jersey’s borders to get a library card and borrow from the State Library.