By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
CRANBURY — Much to the relief of the Cranbury Public Library staff and patrons, the library hours will remain intact.
That’s because members from the Board of Education and the library board of trustees have negotiated a plan to segregate students from the public during school hours.
As discussed by members of both parties at an Oct. 24 meeting, the plan involves reconfiguring the facility’s furniture, having library employees monitor the children’s section and seeing that students use the school’s restroom facilities, said Marilynn Mullen, library director.
”This is what we suggested originally when we gave our impact statement,” Ms. Mullen said.
Issues arose when the school board requested that the library close it doors during school hours, by 15 hours per week, so that students could have exclusive use of the facility.
”The changes in our hours, especially in the middle of the day, is something we couldn’t do,” Ms. Mullen said. “We’re just very pleased (the Board of Education) is willing to negotiate. We’re more than happy to work with them.”
The public library shares its space with students as it is housed on school property, which gives school officials the final word on how the facility operates.
School officials made the request for hour cuts in August, expecting the changes to be implemented in October, basing their decision on security concerns and in an effort to expand teaching in the facility, which would help their standings with state evaluators.
However, library representatives said limiting their hours would place a burden on their employees, alienate their patrons and jeopardize a reciprocal borrowing agreement it has with other libraries in the county.
Ms. Mullen said that among the changes the library has in store for patrons are a separated children’s and adult section — walled off by bookshelves to limit access — and two separate circulation desks, one dedicated to each section, centered in the middle of the room and placed back-to-back for easy monitoring.
”You think of every other library, they usually have a separate children’s section,” she said.
The library plans to hire movers to help with the reconfiguration and expects to be closed on Thursday, Nov. 7 and possibly into that weekend, Ms. Mullen said.
”Moving books and keeping them in order is a tricky business,” she said. “We’re really just rearranging.”
Tables now in the center of the room will be moved to the children’s section on the west side of the approximately 62,000-square-foot facility. Some of the chairs that now sit where the children’s section will soon be will be scattered throughout the building and any overflow pieces of furniture will be removed, Ms. Mullen said. Computers located in the middle of the room will be moved to the east side of the adult section of the building where the circulation desks are.
The children’s section will be housed on the north and west side of the building, opposite the school children’s entrance and the adult section on the south and east side of the building, Ms. Mullen said.
School officials will be responsible for students’ whereabouts, while library employees will be responsible for their patrons, she said.
The public library’s children’s story time, typically held on Monday mornings during school hours will be conducted in the Gambino Room, since the library purchased a new conference table and stackable tables last month that has opened up the space for larger groups.
As for the potential of classes and students disturbing the quiet of the library, Ms. Mullen said everyone is going to have to make sacrifices under the situation.
”As long as we in fact share the facility, I think people will have to realize they are sharing this space,” she said. “If someone really needs quiet they have the smaller rooms.”
Other changes have occurred in the library since this issue first came up.
The library board of trustees elected Kirstie Venanzi as president Oct. 16, following the resignation of former President Frank Brennan Jr., who resigned for personal reasons Oct. 13.
The library is also looking into starting a library foundation, for fundraising purposes, just in case it needs to start looking into other options for the facility in the future, Ms. Mullen said.
School officials were unavailable for comment.
For more information or questions contact the library 609-655-2858.

