Borough facility now part of county system
By Mary Ellen Day, Special Writer
Manville’s Public Library is now operating as part of the Somerset County Library System. As of yesterday, the library will offer more hours and more services.
Even though the legal transition took place July 1, the library staff completed a week of training on Tuesday, during which the library was closed.
The hours at the library have increased to Monday-Friday from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and on Saturdays 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sandy Scrape, the chairperson of the borough’s Library Advisory Committee, is happy to see Manville in the county system.
”It is the best thing that we could have done,” she said. “That is why people did keep their jobs and Manville still has a library. Financially, if we had not, it might have been the last year of the Manville Public Library. We would have had to give up the building because financially we couldn’t afford it. Everyone still has their jobs and there have not been any major changes at all.”
The new Manville library plans a grand opening on Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend the celebration.
Brian Auger, director of the county library system, has been working with the staff during the transition period.
”We are just really excited to work with the Manville staff to provide the best possible library service we can,” he said. Manville will have more programs and more resources and a larger programming budget.
Program ideas and execution are all done at the local level. “It is only going to get better,” he said.
Mr. Auger said he is happy to add to the resources that the Manville Public Library already has. There will be an increase in books, DVDs, CDs and periodicals, he said, and more computers and work stations will also be in next year’s budget.
Manville residents can now go to any of the 12 libraries in the county system and borrow materials. Books from other libraries can be delivered to Manville the next day and patrons will be offered more programs.
The current employees of the Manville Public Library remain. The county system has hired one adult services librarian and is in the process of hiring a teen librarian.
According to Mr. Auger, the library building remains the property of Manville and it is the responsibility of Manville to keep up. The county is trying to move to provide some type of subsidy to hosting municipalities.
Any fines that are collected stay in the borough. The county will work with Verizon to install broadband Ethernet access in each of the buildings this year.
Manville Library cardholders will still use their current cards and their information has been put into the county system. Other county system cardholders can also now use the Manville library and Manville cardholders can use any of the other libraries in the system.
Closest branches are in Bridgewater, Bound Brook, Branchburg, Hillsborough, Mary Jacobs in Rocky Hill and Somerville.
Mr. Auger is excited for Hillsborough residents who live close to the Manville library.
”There are folks who live in Hillsborough but they are on the Manville side of Route 206. This now becomes a much more convenient library for them to get to and use. We are hoping to get the word out to them that they now have another option in a neighborhood library.”
As stated by Mr. Auger again, if someone leaves a bequest to the Manville library, all the funds remain there, as do any assets brought into the partnership. A branch agreement would be crafted to reflect that. Also if Manville decided to leave the system, an agreement would guarantee it would go out with the same amount but maybe not necessarily the same ones.
”People should visit the library as we do now have passes to different museums with discount prices or free. We are working on some more programs, better programs. It is the best thing that we could have done in order for Manville to keep a library and have a branch,” Ms. Scrape said.
Patrons with questions can call the county library at 908-526-4016, ext. 128, or the Manville facility at 908-722-9722. Or they can visit the website at http://www.sclsnj.org.