The Cranbury Public Library wants to make a new friend. In fact, it would like to make several.
By Nicole M. Wells, Special Writer
CRANBURY — The Cranbury Public Library wants to make a new friend. In fact, it would like to make several.
While presenting the Library’s Annual Report at the Township Committee meeting Monday night, Library Board President Kirstie Venanzi said that membership in Friends of the Cranbury Public Library has been steadily declining and that more volunteers are needed.
”What we’re finding is that there are fewer and fewer volunteers and I think this is a community-wide situation,” Ms. Venanzi said. “We feel that this is a great organization that will come back, especially when we have a new facility.”
The Friends of the Cranbury Public Library was founded in 1994 according to the organization’s Facebook page.
According to information obtained from the library’s website, “the Friends is a non-profit organization composed of individuals, families, local merchants and corporations who have a common interest and goal.” That common interest is to have the best possible library services, according to the website.
To that end, the Friends encourages literacy and aims to instill a love of reading in the library’s patrons, according to the organization’s Facebook page. It sponsors or assists with special library programs and also delivers books to the disabled, homebound and needy.
According to the Facebook page, members solicit donations of funds and equipment for the library, as well as conduct used book sales, which recycle books while simultaneously raising funds for the library.
Additionally, the Friends endeavor to garner public support for the library and keep the public informed about legislation affecting public libraries.
Ms. Venanzi said she attributes the decline in the number of Friends to retiring volunteers whose shoes aren’t being filled by the younger generations.
Included in the Annual Report was the library’s 2014 operating budget presentation. With the township appropriation making up the lion’s share, the library’s income is expected to total $541,012, according to documents prepared by library staff.
After meeting all of its financial obligations and expenses, the library expects to have a net operating income of $6,648.
According to Ms. Venanzi, all New Jersey municipal library funding is set by the state and based on a law that requires that one third of a million of equalized valuation within the township be used to fund the library. For Cranbury in 2014, that amount is $522,192.
”It really does depend on the property values of the town so we are lucky in this town that we are able to fund and run our own library,” Ms. Venanzi said.
The Cranbury Public Library is funded at the state standard for libraries, she said.

