Monmouth County Freeholders issue proclamation honoring Friends of the Monmouth County Library

The Monmouth County Board of Freeholders has issued a proclamation honoring the extraordinary work done by the Friends of the Monmouth County Library and its current president, Shirley Norby.

Freeholder Lillian G. Burry, liaison to the Monmouth County Library System, read the proclamation at the January Monmouth County Library Commission meeting, and declared Jan 11, 2012 to be “Shirley Norby Day.”

“On the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the Friends of Monmouth County Library, the Board of Chosen Freeholders are pleased to commend the many contributions made by Shirley Norby, and acknowledge her unwavering efforts to create awareness and encourage membership to the Friends of the Monmouth County Library,” Burry said.

The members of the Library Commission joined with Burry in congratulating Norby on a job well done.

Norby, a Brielle resident, has been president of the Friends group since 2007. The Friends group helps support collections, services and programs at both Library Headquarters in Manalapan, and the Eastern Branch in Shrewsbury.

The money raised by the Friends goes to purchasing items for special collections (such as the Library’s Chinese language collection), purchasing items for the children’s departments, scholarships, and art acquisitions.

Norby first joined the Friends of the Library at the Eastern Branch in 1982, and was active in the campaign to build a Library Headquarters in Manalapan.

She became vice president of the Friends of the Library in 1995, and also took the position of chair for the Friends scholarship committee. Norby said she is most proud of her work with the scholarship committee, which has given money to more than a dozen students studying library science since she became chair of the committee.

This year, the scholarship committee bestowed a $1,000 scholarship on Stephanie Laurino, a reference librarian at Library Headquarters who is pursuing her masters in library science from Clarion University.

The Friends formed an Art Fund in 1989 to provide financial assistance in acquiring permanent works of art for the library system, and have succeeded in procuring several large sculptures and watercolors.

Norby was very active in getting two major sculptures by noted artist Bart Walters. The aptly named “Friends” sculpture of a boy and girl reading was dedicated in 1999 in the lobby of Library Headquarters in Manalapan. “Wild Imaginings,” a sculpture of a lion guarding a boy reading a book, was installed in front of Eastern Branch at the grand re-opening of the renovated library in 2008.

 In October, 2009, under Norby’s direction, the Friends hosted a major fundraiser at Eastern Branch to help pay off the bill for the lion sculpture.

Norby has participating in any number of fundraising activities for the Friends groups through the years, ranging from selling baked goods at Sunday events, to putting together a fund-raising cookbook, to donation drives.

The Friends of the Monmouth County Library was first established in 1962. At that time, the Association of American University Women and the Red Bank chapter of the League of Women Voters were urging the development of an Eastern Branch Library.

An AAUW member from Rumson, Renee Swartz, was instrumental in forming the first Friends group. The Friends lobbied the Freeholders for the library and in 1968, ground was broken for the Eastern Branch.

Swartz served as the first president of the Friends, before going on to serve on the Library Commission in 1968 and then becoming Commission chair in 1976, a position she continues to hold today.

Join the Friends of the Monmouth County Library! Member applications are available at the circulation desks of Library Headquarters in Manalapan and the Eastern Branch in Shrewsbury.