From: Bob Griffin <[email protected]> To: nj history bulletin board <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, June 30, 1999 5:22 PM Subject: Bergen Co. HIstorical Society Library Collection Many of you have read or heard in recent weeks that the Bergen Co. Historical Society's priceless book and clippings files collection will shortly be moved from its long time home at the Johnson Public Library in Hackensack.Sadly, this is true. For the past several years, we've been searching for another home. In October 1997, we were told by the Johnson P.L. Board of Trustees that we had 2 years to find a new home. Our situation is difficult because, as an all volunteer, non-profit organization, we've enjoyed the Johnson P.L. space at no cost to the Society, and our very modest budget does not provide for any excess funds to be used for rent. Likewise, while a few of our volunteers help patrons a couple of days a week, we really rely on the professional, salaried staff at the library to service the collection. Furthermore, it would not be sufficient for us merely to find an empty building, as there are significant safety and environmental concerns, the need for access during usual "library hours," and so forth. Therefore, we have concentrated our search on other possible library facilities, either public or academic. As you may be aware, today libraries everywhere are faced with severe space and financial difficulties. We have come face to face with this reality in our own search efforts. In our county-wide appeal (through the Bergen County Cooperative Library System of approx. 66 member libraries), only Rutherford P.L. and Mahwah P.L. admitted to any possible free space. Once it was checked out, the Rutherford space proved to be inadequate. At Mahwah, after some consideration, The Library Board elected NOT to grant us space in their new building. Likewise, after 6 months negotiating with Bergen Community College, we finally concluded there was simply no space at their campus in Paramus in which to house the collection, at this time. Two towns, Mahwah and Ridgewood, have vacant, old library buildings. The Mahwah Mayor and Council turned down the proposal made by the Township Administrator, Bob Anderson, to grant us space in the old Winter Library building in Mahwah. In Ridgewood, the old Pease building would be ideal space and would provide a very convenient, central location in the county. We have made a proposal to a special Committee that is investigating alternative uses for the building, and we are preparing a revised joint proposal with the Ridgewood Arts Council for the same space. If either proposal were accepted, however, we would probably not have access to the building for at least 2 to 3 years. Bergen County Executive, Pat Schuber, put us in touch with the president of Felician College, Sister Teresa Martin. Felician College is a small, Catholic college with its main campus in Lodi. Recently, they purchased the old Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Campus property in Rutherford, and they plan to move some of their classes there. Our on-going discussions with Felician appear to be our best hope at the moment. We've had contact with a member of the history department faculty, and he is very eager to see us come to Lodi. I will be meeting with the director of the library and the vice president of administration tomorrow (7/1/99). Just today, I was also in touch with the library director at Ramapo College in Mahwah. She indicated that Ramapo was about to undertake an expansion program, and she was willing to investigate with the architect whether we might find room in their new facility. So, discussions are continuing there, as well. Meanwhile, we've been given a brief reprieve from the Johnson P.L board of trustees. Our June 30th (today) deadline has been extended to the end of August. At that time, we will either put the collection into storage at Felician College (assuming we would eventually move there, sometime in January '00), or into storage in a County office building in Hackensack. Either way, AFTER AUGUST 31, 1999, THE COLLECTION WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR AT LEAST 4 TO 6 MONTHS. Our long term goal is to unite the Johnson P.L. collection (which comprises about 1/3 of our total collection) with the other manuscripts, maps, atlases, photographs, bibles, newspapers, and other archive materials that are currently in storage in our HQ in River Edge. To that end, there are several options that might be available. First, of course, is the possibility of having our own facility at Historic New Bridge Landing (HNBL) in River Edge. We are working with the HNBL State Park Commission to see a fully developed historic park at New Bridge, and it would include a new library and archive facility. Also, we have discussed the possibility of a similar facility at the newly reclaimed Hackensack Water Company property in Oradell, also planning to become a historic and cultural resource center. Bergen Community College was sincerely interested in the collection, and eventually hopes to have enough room to consider housing the larger collection there. The same is true at the Pease library building in Ridgewood. In every case, we're talking about a minimum of 5 years before any of these possibilities are likely to pan out. We will continue to pursue each of them until we come up with the best solution. Meanwhile, anyone interested in using the collection had better do so this summer, as it will definitely be moved and/or stored after August 1999. I hope this explanation of our situation is helpful. Bob Griffin, President Bergen County Historical Society website at www.carroll.com/bchs and Bergen Historic Books, Inc. website at www.bergenhistoricbooks.com e-mail to [email protected] (201) 816-0585 -------------------- <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <HEAD> <META content=text/html;charset=iso-8859-1 http-equiv=Content-Type><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <META content='"MSHTML 4.72.2106.6"' name=GENERATOR> </HEAD>