All you need to know about New Jersey is just a room away.
The New Jersey Room on the third floor of the main branch of the Jersey City Public Library on Jersey Avenue reopened recently after weeks of renovations that began in mid-February.
The room contains information on Jersey City, Hudson County and New Jersey. The renovations included upgrading documents of studies of the state government, social, industrial and economic reports of Jersey City and Hudson County, and information on recreation and tourist attractions throughout New Jersey.
The room features publications of state history from 1845 to the present, more than 150 current periodicals, an index of Hudson County newspapers, maps and books by native New Jersey authors.
The new director of the room, Cynthia Harris, coordinated the reopening during a ribbon cutting ceremony held June 12 at the library at 1 p.m.
“I spoke about preservation practices,” Harris said. “We have paper that flakes when you touch it.”
The room has been one of the features of the main branch since 1960. Through the years, some of its contents have decayed, and it was time for a massive upgrade, Harris said.
“The room was opened to provide information about local history,” Harris said. “It was gratifying to get people here. A great experience.”
Harris urged all who attended the ceremony to help support the room so it could have better equipment to preserve books. Due to humidity and atmospheric pollution, most of the documents and old publications become ruined, she said.
Harris, a former seventh-grade math teacher, began working as director of the room a couple of weeks before renovations began.
“Our goal is to preserve information gained from the past. We really want to be able to keep stuff intact,” Harris said.
Former director Kenneth French was happy to see the renovations done to the room he managed for five years. “People will know we have information,” French said.
He leaves his duties as director to work as the head librarian at St. Peter’s Prep High School in Jersey City, where he eventually wants to teach local history.
“I’m hoping the school does projects so we can utilize the resources at the main branch,” he said.
French gave Harris as much advice as he could before leaving the job, but admits that most of the training will come from doing it, he said.
“In the beginning I walked her through some day to day reports,” he said.
During his tenure as director, French was proud to have increased the room’s book collection on Jersey City municipal reports, he said.
“Most people don’t know we have it.”