The Second Century - The Newark Public Library

The Year of the Branch

The Newark Public Library has designated 2000 as the Year of the Branch. We are implementing the Branch 2000 Project by featuring the collections and technology of the branches as we hold open houses systemwide. The project is supported by a $500,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Dr. Alex Boyd, the Library Director, calls the project “an effort to raise the Library’s visibility in the city’s neighborhoods and to increase awareness of available resources.”

A major initiative of the project is the strengthening of branch collections. The Library will accomplish this by adding materials on literature, the sciences, and technology. Furthermore, we are adding health information resources to branch collections, as well as materials of specific interest to the residents of the individual branch communities. All branches will have multiple copies to ensure that these collections will be readily available.

The Community Health Information Project (known as CHIP) is another component of the Branch 2000 Project. The Carnegie grant enables us to add medical references and other health-related materials to branch collections and to hold an ambitious schedule of free programs at the branches.

*Mabel Spradley-Williams, CHIP Coordinator, and Dr. Alex Boyd, Library Director, pose with Dr. Debbie Salas-Lopez, presenter of Latino Public Health program.*

Guiding our Branch 2000 Project is a systemwide planning process that featured a patron survey conducted at the end of 1999. Patrons filled out more than 1,500 forms, identifying the library services most important to them and indicating ways in which the Library can serve them better. The staff is tabulating the surveys; we will publish the results in the next issue of The Second Century.

*Children complete User Surveys.*

Meanwhile, a city-sponsored initiative supporting the refurbishing of all branch buildings continues. More than $5,000,000 in City funds has been invested in the expansion and renovation of four branches: Springfield, Weequahic, North End, and Van Buren. The complete renovation of the Vailsburg branch is soon to begin, supported by the City and generous grants from the Victoria Foundation and the Turrell Fund.

The Second Century is published by the Development Department of The Newark Public Library, Dr. Alex Boyd, Library Director, and the Board of Trustees: Alberto Coutinho, President; Betty S. Rufalo, Vice President; Trish Morris-Yamba, Secretary; Joseph Yeadon, Treasurer; State District Superintendent of Schools, Marion A. Bolden, Doris Culver, Alternate; Mayor Sharpe James, Dolores Henry Metz, Alternate; Felix Cruz, Dr. Clement Alexander Price, Frank Salsano.


Volume 11 Number 1, Winter 2000