ex-Libraries now Learning Centers

An article in Library Journal addresses a current in the library world: how will libraries deal with funding cuts?

Trenton’s un-libraries are still steaming ahead. Mayor Tony Mack reopened the former Cadwalader branch on June 4, according to the Times of Trenton. That’s the third of four library branches that had been closed due to budget cuts, leaving Trenton with only its main library operational. As LJ reported, Trenton’s Mayor and Council couldn’t provide the approximately $800,000 the Trenton Free Public Library (TFPL) required to keep the four branches open part time. Instead, the Mayor chose to reopen the buildings as “learning center libraries” not under the control of the library board or administration for a fraction of the cost. They can’t legally be called libraries, since New Jersey state law requires libraries to be governed by the library board and run by librarians.

Rather than leaving the buildings closed, Trenton has reconfigured them, relying on a small paid staff and volunteers.


The New Jersey Library Association has taken a dim view of staffing former library branches with unpaid and part-time workers rather than certified librarians. Under state law, public buildings that offer library services must be controlled by library boards.

Some might call that viewpoint spitting into the wind. What is the alternative, when there is not enough money?

TFPL Director Kimberly Matthews told LJ that the TFPL has proposed a number of alternatives for “providing additional library services throughout the community” in its 2013 draft budget, which was presented to Hutchinson on May 4. “We would love to explore a variety of different options of library service in an economically challenged city such as Trenton,” said Matthews. Options include “an Internet or Internet/bookmobile, and possibly book vending machines like they have in San Francisco.”

Without sufficient funds, of course, the public loses, but, is something better than nothing?