The Friends of the Princeton Public Library have donated $50,000 to a new $200,000 initiative to expand and update the library’s collection in time for the opening of the new downtown library in April.
In anticipation of the move to the $18 million building, library employees have been inspecting all 146,000 books, videos, CDs, DVDs and audiobooks in the collection. During this "weeding out" process, staff members have identified many library materials that are worn or dated, said Leslie Burger, library director.
"We’ve found reference books that don’t include the word ‘computer’ in their indexes, books like ‘Russia Today,’ which offers the very latest about the ‘new’ Khrushchev regime and children’s books that fall apart in your hand when you remove them from the shelf," Ms. Burger said. "We also discovered that many of our 4,300 videos have been borrowed more that 200 times each and, on the other hand, items that circulated a handful of times in the past 25 years."
The move to the new building gives the library a chance to overhaul and expand the collection to meet community expectations. Items to be kept will be repaired and recent editions of reference books and new copies of worn-out audiovisual materials will be purchased.
"We want an up-to-date collection to go along with our new world-class building," Ms. Burger said. "We’re grateful that the Friends of the Library have stepped forward to lead this campaign and we hope everyone in the community will get involved."
The Friends will administer the campaign, details of which are covered in a brochure available at the library or by calling (609) 9249529, ext. 255.
Friends Council member Jo Butler has created an informative and amusing display window at the temporary library at Princeton Shopping Center that highlights woefully out-of-date and shopworn items that have been removed from the collection. The display changes each month to reflect portions of the collection being updated.
"I asked the staff to pass along copies of books that were in particularly bad shape or very dated and the response was overwhelming," said Ms. Butler. "It was a real eye-opener to realize just how much room there is for improvement."
Princeton Public Library is in Princeton Shopping Center, 301 N. Harrison St., Princeton Township. Special assistance is available for library patrons with disabilities. Those with special needs should contact the library 48 hours before any program to arrange for accommodations. Call (609) 9249529.
For more information on library programs and services, visit www.princetonlibrary.org.
