By Nick Norlen, Staff Writer
Princeton Public Library has checked out as a sponsor of the Princeton Community OneCard.
Though the library will still participate as a potential recipient of donations, it will not be the primary sponsor or re-issue its library cards as OneCards, as previously proposed by the card’s creator, Princeton-based Heartland Payment Systems.
The decision was precipitated by an offer from Heartland to the library to withdraw its proposal for the library to be the main sponsor of the card, which the library board accepted.
The partnership, which has been adopted by the Princeton Regional School District, involves a prepaid cash card program in which users would get cash back on every transaction they make using the card. Cardholders make the decision to keep that money or donate it to the primary beneficiary or another nonprofit.
The move by Heartland and the library not to have the library as the primary recipient and sponsor followed concerns stated by a board member and a borough merchant that the program is “discriminatory” because it wouldn’t allow merchants who can’t afford to buy or rent the necessary equipment to benefit from the library’s implicit endorsement of the system.
Though many merchants have expressed excitement for the program, concerns were also raised about privacy issues the mixing the library’s mission with consumerism.
Still, the decision for Heartland and the library to part ways, for now, was a mutual one, and leaves open the possibility of the library becoming a sponsor in the future, said Heartland’s executive director of marketing, Nancy Gross.
Now, Heartland is partnering with Princeton Regional Schools, and will make the Princeton Education Foundation the primary recipient, she said.
Heartland is also welcoming local private schools to participate, and has already approached Princeton Day School.
”It’s just best for everybody, including us, to partner with the schools,” Heartland Payment Systems CEO Bob Carr said, “because the schools are used to having cards that serve multiple purposes.”
He added, “The main thing is that the library cardholders, they’ll have two cards. It’s not going to be a OneCard for the library,” he said. “It will be for the school.”
Still, library members will still be able to participate in the program, and the library plans to make its members aware of the potential benefit of using the card, Library Director Leslie Burger said.
”There was some concerns raised by several community-minded citizens. I think it just forced us to think a little bit about the card and whether or not to move forward,” she said.
Board President Katherine McGavern said there was an informal board consensus not to participate as a sponsor or move forward with its planned request for proposals similar to the OneCard program.
”I think that we decided that this would be a good time for the Princeton Education Foundation to bring it forward,” she said. “We thought that they would be more appropriate. It gives the board a chance to see how it rolls out. It’s wonderful that we can be recipients.”
Ms. Gross said a community-wide launch is still planned for mid-April, but school IDs won’t be reissued until the fall.
