Small-money Cooperatives, Big Impact
Interface Volume 28 Number 2, Summer, 2006. Interface is the quarterly newsletter published by the ASCLA division of the ALA. The "Trading Spaces" project is a partnership of the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative (SJRLC), the New Jersey State Library (NJSL), and the Mount Laurel (N.J.) Public Library (MLPL). Each of the three partners invested $15,000 with the goal of changing the perception of the New Jersey public libraries.
Volume 28, Number 2, Summer 2006
Small-money Cooperative Programs Can Have Big Impacts
by Connie Paul, Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative
Come Saturday, June 24, 1:30-3:30 P.M., to find out how three partners invested $15,000 each with the goal of changing the
perception of our public libraries! The “Trading Spaces” project is a partnership of the South Jersey Regional Library
Cooperative (SJRLC), the New Jersey State Library (NJSL), and the Mount Laurel (N.J.) Public Library (MLPL). It was born at
a New Jersey Library Association(NJLA) program featuring Dave Genesy, marketing guru and now director of the Redwood City
(Calif.) Public Library.
Karen Hyman, SJRLC director, and State Librarian Norma Blake heard the same message at that program: “We’ve got to do this
(transform our libraries NOW) in New Jersey!” And when MLPL agreed to join with a commitment of matching the $15,000 of the
other two agencies, Trading Spaces was off and running. This project was featured in the April 2006 issue of American
Libraries.
In addition to Hyman and Genesy, the program features state library representative Kathleen Peiffer and Joan Bernstein
and Kathy Schalk-Greene, director and assistant director of MLPL, respectively. The focus of the program is “How can a
cooperative project work and keep on working?” There will be time for questions and discussion from the audience.
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Small-money Cooperatives, Big Impact