By Gary Cooper
At its annual meeting on December 13, 2012, at the Bridgewater Marriot, the Somerset County Business Partnership (SCBP) recognized the Somerset County Library System (SCLS) with a 2012 Economic Vitality Award for its programs to provide resources and assistance to patrons with employment search challenges. Accepting the award, before over 450 business men and women in attendance, was Brian Auger, director of the Somerset County Library System, from Michael Kerwin, president & CEO of the SCBP.
The awards are presented annually to Somerset County companies that have made a significant economic impact and have fostered economic vitality through job creation and retention, job training and retraining, sales growth, profitability and reinvestment, technologic advancement, and increased capital assets and influx of new dollars.
The Somerset County Library System took advantage of funding opportunities via the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) through the New Jersey State Library to put together programming and ancillary support materials under the NJWorks@YourLibrary umbrella.
More photos are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/njlibraryevents/sets/72157632277688734/
The SCBP considered the library system’s accomplishments during that time period in recognizing their efforts. Highlights of how the funding and resources were used at SCLS include:
Lisa Bogart, head of marketing and public relations, took advantage of a one day training program under Project Compass that dovetailed with the BTOP funding, to learn more about resources available to libraries in helping patrons with employment search challenges. In turn, she worked with SCLS librarians to develop two open houses.
Two separate open houses were offered to SCLS patrons about the services and resources available to patrons. A number of community civic and non-profit organizations participated at each open house.
An invitation package made up of an invitation, a poster and several smaller fliers, plus some resource booklets developed for job searchers at SCLS went out to all municipal, county, state and federal elected officials. The ancillary pieces were developed through the adaptation of marketing materials designed and developed by the NJ State Library.
A librarian attended an event at Jewish Family Services, while the United Way of Northern New Jersey, Somerset County office, held several programs at SCLS libraries. The connections with these organizations came out of the open house events.
The Somerville Library took advantage of some of the BTOP funding to have Raritan Valley Community College professors come in and teach some very focused classes on job searching skills to patrons.
Bridgewater Library served as a Project Compass training site early in the funding process for librarians in New Jersey to gain insight as to the resources available to them in assisting patrons.
Funding also allowed SCLS to acquire 20 additional computers, allowing more patrons to conduct work related searches and research.
In addition, SCLS was able to obtain a number of pop-up banners, again from the NJ State Library, that are displayed in branch libraries advertising the NJWorks@YourLibrary programs.
Throughout this same time period, a wide variety of classes and sessions were offered to SCLS patrons. Classes have included how to use several on-line databases available to SCLS through BTOP funding from the NJ State Library, basic computer skills – particularly important for job seekers with little or no technical skills, career assessment workshops, using the internet for job searching, resume and cover letter workshops, interview preparation, information on starting a small business, networking skills, how to use LinkedIn, creating a business plan, and job searching for the age 40+ worker, among other topics.
Two representatives of the NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development (LWD) gave training sessions in September, 2012, to SCLS librarians about a new Jobs database called Jobs4Jersey.com. In addition, binders disseminated by LWD to each library branch contained information (including local job listings).
Following are the statistics of Somerset County residents who have taken advantage of the programming initiated by the Somerset County Library System, through the BTOP Grant, to the betterment of the unemployed, underemployed, job seekers and small businesses of the county.
Job & Career Accelerator
1,302 user sessions
351 registrations
85 resumes created
18 cover letters created
4,562 job searches
Career Transitions
110 user sessions
132 job searches
Small Business Resource Center
39 user sessions
197 searches conducted
Job Readiness Workshops
19 workshops
160 residents in attendance

