MONROE- Birthday party honors 13 years
By: Nick D’Amore
MONROE Residents have seen the Monroe Township Library grow from its humble beginnings in the lower level of the municipal building to its present facility.
On Monday, they saw their young library located at its own site in the municipal plaza for the past four years officially enter its teen-age years, celebrating its 13th birthday.
"It’s been an amazing 13 years," said Irene Goldberg, who has been the library’s director for all of those years.
She said the library now has 20,000 active patrons and contains 83,000 books, videos and other media.
"It’s really quite something to achieve in such a short time. Most libraries have been around for decades. We’re just a baby," she said.
Ms. Goldberg said the celebration Monday April Fool’s Day was more low-key than other milestone celebrations in the past.
She said the library throughout the day showed movies that teen-agers would enjoy, such as "Time Machine" and "The Princess Bride," and served popcorn, soda and juice.
In the main room of the library, coffee and doughnuts were available for patrons.
Also, she said, any child who was 13 years old was given a photo album.
"We wanted to emphasize that there wasn’t a library before they were born," said Ms. Goldberg.
She said that in 1989, the library was one of community’s mandates to Mayor Richard Pucci, who had been elected in 1988.
"Prior to the development of the retirement communities, this was all farmland and residents went to neighboring communities’ libraries. Starting with Rossmoor, as the retirement communities were built up, they wanted a library," she said.
Ms. Goldberg said the rapidly growing population necessitated the library move from the municipal building to its own facility in October 1997.
"I started out with a folding chair and a card table," she said.
Much has changed since 1989.
"There were no computers in the library then," Ms. Goldberg said. "They weren’t so viable then and there was no place to put them."
Now the library has 23 public computers and computerized record-keeping.
"We’ve tried not to lose the homey feeling we had in our small space," she said.
Also, Ms. Goldberg said the library had a few videos when it first opened and now has 5,000 videos and DVDs, as well as CDs and books on CD.
"The way you can get your recreational reading has changed a lot," she said.
New technological advances at the library include an E-book reader and an Mp3 reader to download and listen to books, said Ms. Goldberg.
"People think it’s quiet and mundane in the library, but it’s an exciting place to be right now. I don’t know where we’ll wind up," she said.