Camden, NJ library rescued

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Camden Mayor Dana Redd announced today that city and county officials have agreed to let the troubled municipal library be taken over by the Camden County library system.

The Camden County Free Public Library already has shared services agreements with 26 of the county 37 municipalities. The details of the takeover arrangement have still to be worked out. To be included in the county system, the city needs to pass a resolution requesting membership and meet the county library's terms and conditions.

"We are working with the city to put together a plan, pursuant to state statute where, if the city wants to become part of the county library system, there will be a path to do so," said Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli, Jr.  at a press conference this morning announcing the deal.

"Negotiations are ongoing betweent he two library boards, but I know that our board is agreeable to being taken over by the county library," Jerome Szpila, Camden library director, said. "The city is very poor, and has just gotten a 25 percent reduction in state aid. The county is better positioned financially to support the library."

The city library board announced last week that it could not sustain the cuts to its budget due to Mayor Redd austerity measures and would be forced to close its entire operation by year's end.

Redd said she never intended her budget cuts to force the library to close.

"As a lifelong resident of Camden, I have always believed our library system to be an essential part in the development of our youth," Redd said. "By joining the county library system, it will give every Camden resident additional access and resources to a wide range of library services throughout the county."

Joyce Gabriel, Camden County public affairs officer, said that, because of the additional services offered by the county system, users of Camden's city libraries will now be better off.

"Their library card will now enable them to borrow books and other materials from any library in the system and get them delivered to their home branch," Gabriel said. "So, the library situation has actually improved."

Camila Alire, past president of the American Library Association, said that public libraries across the nation are under pressure to cut back on services because of the tough economic atmosphere.

While Camden is the only U.S. city - that is, with a population over 75,000 -- to come this close to having to shutter its entire library system, a few smaller communities have seen the worst happen.

In May 2010, the three branches of the Hood River County Public Library in Oregon, which served a community of 21,000 people, closed their doors for economic reasons. The community is currently trying to re-open the library.

In November 2009, Colton, CA, a municipality of about 48,000, closed its public library. Alire explained that the public outcry was such that, within a few weeks, the library re-opened.

"Library advocacy works when the grassroots community gets involved," Alire said. "Lawmakers often don't realize how much people in the community use and depend on local library services and resources, for pre-schoolers, for after-school homework clubs, for senior citizens, for access to the Internet, for resources for business."

Alire called libraries "the great equalizer," because people can access information and educational equipment, read a bestseller or a classic, look for work and stay socially connected, all without expense.

Szpila said that the value of a library increases when its users are poorer.

"This is where people in Camden come to use a PC, as well as read a book,"' he said. "The library helps the community stay in touch with the world. Suburban communities love their libraries and rightly so. But we in the city, we really need a library."