Submitted by Michele Stricker, Deputy Director, Library Development Bureau, New Jersey State Library

State Library Awards Emergency Response Grant to Burlington County

The New Jersey State Library awarded a new pilot grant to form regional partnerships in emergency response and preparedness to the Burlington County Library System in Westhampton, New Jersey. The county library received $10,000 in emergency supplies to be used in case of a large-scale emergency. The Library Regional Response Network Initiative provides the supplies needed by libraries to build a regional partnership for emergency response in the event of a large-scale disaster. It also ensures that the emergency supplies are readily accessible to every library in the network and that volunteers will be available to help. Network libraries include the Burlington County Library System, and the public municipal libraries of Willingboro, Mount Laurel and Moorestown.

The supplies, which include Shop Vacs, dehumidifiers, plastic crates, brooms, mops and hard hats, are to be used to rapidly clean and preserve a library’s contents in the event of flood, fire or other disaster. The equipment is being stored at the Westhampton site in a tractor trailer, which makes mobile response to other libraries in the network possible.

The program, which is supported by the New Jersey State Library with LSTA funding, will serve as a pilot project on how New Jersey libraries address disaster response and recovery, and provide a model that can be replicated by librarians seeking to create their own regional response network. Grant applicants were required to form a regional partnership for emergency response, complete disaster plans for each location and sign a memorandum of agreement outlining the roles and responsibilities of network members.

Photo from left: Michele Stricker, Deputy Director of Library Development for the NJ State Library, Maria Esche, director Moorestown Public Library, Kathy Schalk-Green, director Mount Laurel Public Library, Christine King, director Willingboro Public Library, Gail Sweet, director Burlington County Library, Westampton, and Kim Ruth, Burlington County Library.
Transferring emergency response supplies at the Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ