The State Library is interested in the number of public libraries who have purchased Zoom licenses. There are only two questions to this survey, so please answer quickly and get it out of your inbox! Kathleen Moeller-Peiffer Deputy State Librarian for Library Support Services ...Continue Reading

*Library Design Strategies in the Age of Social Distancing* Description   How are librarians preparing to allow people back into the library once we have all moved beyond curbside delivery? There will certainly be a lot of anxiety and wariness of internal spaces, close contact, and safety for both the staff and the public. Join Architect Jim Kovach, Senior Associate at VMDO, for a webinar on architectural strategies that librarians might consider employing to create a safe and welcoming environment in the Covi ...Continue Reading

Dear Colleagues, The New Jersey State Library acknowledges the hard work and sacrifice of library staff during the past few months.  The struggles you have all faced were unprecedented and your skill at handling them is to be commended.  While the slow process of reopening our public libraries is beginning we are confronted daily with new challenges.     To assist public libraries in this new reality the State Librarian has suspended the following Per Capita State Aid minimum requirements for ...Continue Reading

Dear Colleagues, Governor Murphy has promulgated Executive Order 157 which contains elements that will affect libraries.  The Executive Order can be found at: https://nj.gov/infobank/eo/056murphy/pdf/EO-157.pdf Please note that libraries are only mentioned in paragraph three of page three, but that mention is to include them, with other businesses and organizations, under the "recreational and entertainment businesses" category.  That category is then further addressed in section 7.&nbs ...Continue Reading

Curbside and Contactless Pickup Service Meetup Thursday, July 2, 11:00am-12:30pm via Zoom Join us for an informal discussion about implementing curbside and contactless pickup. Has your library started offering this service? Share your lessons learned. Have no idea where to start? Let's discuss your options. Discussion Leaders: Ralph Bingham, Gloucester County Library System & Nadine Sergejeff, Newark Public Library   Register for MentorNJ Online Meet-ups in response to COVID-19 outbreak: https://libra ...Continue Reading

Dear Colleagues, The July Directors' Check-in will be focused on budgeting in public libraries and will feature a presentation from Chris Carbone, Director of the South Brunswick Public Library.  It will be held on July 14th, 2020 at 2:00PM.  We will record the session and post it on the New Jersey State Library YouTube channel.  As always Michele Stricker and Bob Keith will be in attendance to answer any questions you might have on any library-related topic.  Please use the link below to register: ...Continue Reading

Division of Local Government Services (DLGS) Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40A:11-3(c) and 18A:18A-3(b), the State Treasurer has exercised her authority to adjust bid thresholds for contracting units subject to the Local Public Contracts Law and the Public School Contracts Law.  These adjustments become effective on July 1, 2020.  The maximum bid threshold has been increased from $40,000 to $44,000 for contracting units that have appointed a Qualified Purchasing Agent and avail themselves of the related higher b ...Continue Reading

Dear Colleagues,  EBSCO recently experienced an outage of their service that lasted most of a day.  In their email discussing that they made available their network status website.  You can use this to check if their service is actually down or if the problem lies with your own connection to the internet.  That website is: https://status.ebsco.com/ Please let me know if you have any questions. Best regards, Bob Keith Director of Library Law, State Aid, and Statistics New Jersey State L ...Continue Reading

New Jersey State Library Webinar with Andrew Sanderbeck Preparing for CO-VID 19 Customer Behaviors  Wednesday, July 8th from 2:00 – 3:00pm EST The doors to your library will be re-opening soon. And when they do, you will quickly notice that the behaviors of your library patrons are going to be different. COVID-19 has caused people to face unprecedented levels of uncertainty and a deep desire for a place to go where there will be some sense of normalcy. Unfortunately, they are going to find that their librar ...Continue Reading

Niche Academy, a library vendor, is making the resources on their *Reopening Lives Academy* free to all libraries in the U.S. There is no password or geo location necessary to access the materials. The library community curated the resources, which include COVID 19 resources, such as cleaning and disinfecting, paycheck protection program, virtual programming and much more. https://my.nicheacademy.com/reopening ...Continue Reading