Friends of the Library Open for Book Donations

Clear off your shelves and drop off your gently used books, CDs and DVDs Aug 23-29

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Cookie Exchange

Tis the season to be jolly! The Ferro-Monte Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, celebrates the season with a Cookie Exchange on Saturday December 14^th.  Bake your favorite cookies to share with the chapter. Don’t forget to bring containers to bring home samples made by fellow members. As a service organization, the Ferro-Monte Chapter, NSDAR believes in helping those in need; so please bring non-perishable items as we will be collecting donations for the local food pantry.

Ferro-Monte Chapter meetings are held at Roxbury Township Free Public Library 103 Main St, Succasunna, NJ at 10am the 2^nd Saturday of the month from October - March. Prospective members are always welcome. If you have an interest in learning about your family tree, we can help you; maybe we can even find a Patriot among your leaves. For information, email: NJDARFerroMonte@aol.com.

The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was founded in 1890 to promote patriotism, preserve American history, and support better education for our nation's children. Its members are descended from the patriots who won American independence during the Revolutionary War. With more than 165,000 members in approximately 3,000 chapters worldwide, DAR is one of the world's largest and most active service organizations. To learn more about the work of today's DAR, visit www.DAR.org.

Roxbury Library Desperately Needs Help

Our Roxbury Twp Free Public Library plays a vital role in the community. It is the center where people can gather, where they can use a computer or where they can borrow a book or DVD to learn new skills and be entertained.  Sandy and its aftermath made this very clear when over 18,000 residents came to the Library to access the internet, re-charge their batteries and pass the time until power was restored to the town.

Computer Center during Sandy

Sandy has past and most of us in Roxbury have gotten back to our daily lives. The Library however is experiencing a storm of its own. The state mandated MINIMUM portion of the Library’s budget has been released with a $68,000 reduction from 2012 numbers.  Most people know that the vast majority of library funding is raised through local taxes, but you may not know that the State mandated annual minimum appropriation for the operation of our Free Public Library is equal to 1/3 of a mill on every dollar of assessable property within the municipality.  Due to the downturn in the economy, the mandated funding that the Trustees rely on for daily operation of the library has been decreasing each year for the past several years.  The minimum funding for 2013 is $1,096,213. In total, the 2013 proposed funding is $241,000 less than it was in 2008. The dramatic decreases in funding have necessitated difficult budget cuts; reducing hours, limiting book purchases and forcing technology to surpass its “End of Life” usefulness. Many needed projects and improvements have been set aside or scrapped altogether.  

The time has come for the residents to ask the Town Council to once again step up and support the Library beyond the state minimum. In years past the Council routinely added to the Library budget to create a Library that was looked up to in the county.  The past few years the Council has chosen not to continue that assistance. The result of the decreased funding; reduced hours, staff reduced by 1/3, program funding eliminated, and materials purchase (books, CDs and e-books) at a paltry 3% of the budget. We will need additional municipal funding to begin to restore our Library to the premier facility it once was. Please help the library by contacting your councilman and ask him or her to consider adding to the 1/3 mill for the library. Contact info for the council can be found at http://roxburynj.us/index.aspx?nid=3 .

Friends of the Roxbury Twp Public Library

The Friends are dedicated to preserving the library and its programs, an effort that has become increasingly important with the continued budget cuts to library funding. For more information on the Friends of Roxbury Twp Public Library visit http://www.roxburylibrary.org/friends/membership.html.

Among Friends

I have been on the board of the Friends of the Roxbury Township Public Library for a number of years. Like many non-profits we are struggling in todays economic climate to maintain let alone increase donations. As a result non-profits are looking for new ways to connect with their membership. A monthly Among Friends e-newsletter is one of those ways the Friends are using. The e-newsletter will quickly catch you up with what's going on with the Friends. This month's message is about our upcoming May events. Please check out this issue of Among Friends. If you like what you see subscribe to future issues by clicking on the Join Mailing List link in the e-newsletter.