“I mourn the loss of the old card catalogues, not because I’m a Luddite, but because the oaken trays of yesteryear offered the researcher an element of random utility and felicitous surprise through encounters with adjacent cards: information by chance that is different in kind from the computer’s ramified but rigid order.” – Author Annie Proulx Forgive workers at the public library if they don’t quite share Proulx’s sentiments. For 20 years, the library has struggled to keep up technologically with the rest of the country, but it has been thwarted at nearly every turn. Until now. In the middle of a projected $1.8 million citywide conversion of its materials from the ancient and creaky card catalog system, the Jersey City Public Library is wiring its branches for the Internet, distributing new library cards (with remote-location catalog access to the library’s new web page) and devising programs to boost circulation and patronage. This all comes a year after heated debate within the City Council over the awarding of a contract to an outside consulting company, a court battle over that contract and eventual resolution. Fran Ware, a consultant with Library Systems and Services of Germantown, Md., said they want to help the flagging library. “We want to turn this library system around,” she said. Recent statistics show a countywide library circulation drop of 12 percent, according to state statistics. To combat this drop, Ware plans to make more copies of popular titles available and increase the number of foreign language books to the collection. Spanish, Hindi and Korean-language titles, among others, will be added. “I know people who live in the Heights and go to New York City [to get their books],” she said. Ware, a former director at the Baltimore County Library, wants to change that. Right now the library circulates about 1,500 items per month. Compare that with about 80,000 a month that Ware said circulated in Baltimore County, a library for which she used to be director. “I’d be happy if we could do 100,000 a year [in Jersey City],” she said. “I’d be thrilled.” Even though the library is concentrating on the Harry Potters and John Grishams, you’ll still be able to get your James Wilcox. On an inter-library loan system, you could get a copy of “Polite Sex,” in a matter of days. All wired up Internet access is now available at the main library on Jersey Avenue. And on Monday, the Lafayette branch on Pacific Avenue will go on-line and be linked to the main branch. Soon to follow will be the Pearsall and West Bergen branches. Zabriskie Street, in the Heights, is under a complete overhaul, and is slated to reopen in December. And yes, it is at the expense of the old card catalog drawers. But it’s not because the library has lost its sense of nostalgia, it’s because they’ve never had the chance to update their system. Three workers, tucked away on the second floor behind the card catalog, place bar code tracking stickers on the books and enter them into the computer. There’s a whole stack of “problem books,” that, for one reason, are not in the library’s records. When asked when she thinks they’ll get done, library staff member Antoinette Green replied, “I plead the fifth.” You can visit the library’s website at www.jclibrary.org
Our Digital Archive from 2000 – 2016
