Happy 80th, Garwood Library: Photos From the Celebration

On Saturday, April 20^th, the Garwood Public Library celebrated 80 years of service to the Borough.

Starting as a project of the Garwood PTA in 1933, and housed in a small room in the basement of Lincoln School, the Library was turned over to Borough control in 1939.  As the municipal library, it has been offering books and other materials to the residents and students of the town ever since.  When the Library first began, it had one visitor table, held merely 4,000 books and a few record albums.  Later in the late 70s, the Library was moved to the basement of the Franklin School at the corner of Walnut Street and Third Avenue, to a double sized basement classroom, where it grew to about 25,000 items including magazines, a small reference section, a children’s area, and one computer for public use.

When the new Lincoln School complex was completed in 2006, the Garwood Public Library was fortunate to be part of the construction, and now the Library is located in a separate, yet attached, building at the same corner of Walnut Street and Third Avenue.  The new library facility is nearly twice the size of the Franklin School location allowing for comfortable seating for 30 visitors, separation of collections, and room for growth.  Currently, the Library is home to about 32,000 items, meeting the needs of the community as well as supporting the curriculum of the school.  In addition to print material, the Garwood Library owns nearly 1,000 DVDs (new releases as well as classics), 700 audio-books, and will soon be adding an e-book subscription to its offerings.  It also has quite an extensive collection of large print materials and provides thirty-five different periodicals that may be borrowed. 

Library cards are free to Garwood residents, who may take advantage of reciprocal borrowing privileges at other libraries in Union County.  The staff of the Library has been with the Library for quite some time and is aware of the educational and recreational reading needs of its customers and the community.  Director Carol Lombardo holds a Masters Degree in Library Science from Rutgers University and has been with the Library since 1989 and director since 1998.  Her Library Assistants Shenaz Nasser, Linda Fiore, and Maryanne Duffy have been with the Library 23, 20, and 8 years respectively.  The latest addition to the Library is Sean McNelis who came on board in 2011.  All are well versed in helping Library visitors find what they need.  The staff is rounded out by two pages, Kelly Greene and Joshua Law, who help maintain order in the library, keeping all things easily accessible. If the Garwood Library does not own a particular item, the staff can get the item through Jersey-Cat, the Statewide Inter-Library Loan system offered through the NJ State Library.

The Library Board of Trustees meets in the Library at 8:00 PM on the first Wednesday of each month, except July and August, and is led by President Maria Nierstedt.  Other members include Christine DiGiacomo Treasurer, Christine Guerriero Secretary, Mary Ann Severage, Carol White, Carolyn Warchol, and Walter Tucker. 

The Garwood Library has a website located at youseemore.com/garwood, and there residents can find information about the Library, best seller lists, staff picks, news and weather, and sign up for programs on-line at the Library’s interactive calendar page.  There are a variety of programs for all ages from Toddler Story times to weekly movies, to a host of lectures, presentations, discussions, and musical programs.

The Library is also home to a Garwood Memorabilia Corner which holds a variety of clippings, pictures, and artifacts of Garwood’s history.  The staff is always looking for more items to preserve.  If any resident has pictures or items of Garwood’s past, the Library will gladly keep them, or if you prefer, we can scan them and return the originals to you.  With all the changes going on in the Borough, the staff feels it is important to remember our past and keep it for future generations to see what we were like “back in the day”.

Located at the corner of Walnut Street and Third Avenue, the library is open from Monday through Thursday 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM; on Friday from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM, and on Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.  Phone is 908-789-1670 and email is garwoodlibrary@gmail.com.

Love the Garwood Library? Tell us why in the comments section, below.