What is this LMxAC?
LMxAC (Libraries of Middlesex Automation Consortium) is our non-profit partnership with 27 public libraries throughout Middlesex, Monmouth, Union and Somerset Counties. Through this organization the Spotswood Public Library is able to offer you, our customers, access to the materials that are not part of our local collection.
At a mere 4000 square feet, our Library is very small. Some of the larger libraries in our consortium have multiple sites, with main branches greater than 30,000 square feet. Our more limited funds and space restrict the resources we can supply to the community, but, luckily, through LMxAC, we are able to provide you with access to the holdings of these much larger libraries. This means that the newest James Patterson thriller you read might come from the shelves at Old Bridge. Or if your child needs right now a copy of Night by Eli Weisel and all our copies are checked out, you can drive to Monroe or Sayreville and check out a copy from either library.
Why LMxAC?
The Consortium has been serving local libraries since 1986 and began online services in 1989. As technology has advanced, so have the services provided by LMxAC. LMxAC provides the software, the telecommunications interface, and the expertise required to run our circulation system. Overdue notices, whether print, phone or email, are generated by this circulation system. Most recently, the Consortium has given our customers the opportunity to place online requests for materials. No longer do you have to put foot in the library to ask for materials (though
you do have to come to the library to charge the materials out!). You can also check your library account online to determine how many items are charged in your name and when they are due. And, of course, you can renew your materials online.
These are services that the Spotswood Public Library could never provide on its own. And this is part of the reason why the Library remains such a vital part of the community. We are a member of a partnership that extends from Long Branch at the Jersey Shore to Roselle Park in Union County.
And there's more to come…
As part of the effort to provide more and more opportunities to more and more people across the state, LMxAC has entered an Open Borrowing agreement with library consortiums throughout north Jersey. Now your Spotswood Library card is a "passport" to libraries in Bergen, Morris, Passaic, Warren and Sussex Counties. Through interlibrary loan service, we have always had the ability to obtain materials from these libraries for you. But now you can visit these libraries in person to check out materials. For example, you're visiting grandma in Teaneck, or on business in Whippanoag. In either case, the materials in those libraries are available to you, for you to take home.
And guess what? You can return those materials to the Spotswood Public Library, and we'll see that they get back to their home library. That's service. Service we are happy to provide to our Spotswood residents through our membership in LMxAC.
Isn't it nice to know?
There's more than one way to read a book…
The Spotswood Library has audiobooks in two formats: on cassette tapes, and on CDs. You can also access downloadable audiobooks through your home computer via the ListenNJ project, available on our website, www.spotswoodboro.com/library.html. You will need your library card to get started.
And now, you can also read a book with a Playaway, an MP3-style player preloaded with a complete book. Attach the Playaway to your belt or a lanyard, plug in your earbuds, and you can be listening to David Sedaris' Dress your Family in Corduroy & Denim or brushing up on your Spanish with the Complete Spanish Language Course. Twenty-two Playaway titles have been ordered, so come in and check them out!
Spotswood Public Library 548 Main Street
Kids' Corner
The current storytime sessions will end of the week of May 21st.
Registration for summer programs will begin June16
Mark your calendar for…
Mom Day Program, May 3rd
Dad Day Program, June 7
And get ready…
To be "bugged" by our Summer Reading Club!
Our special kick-off event will take place the week of June 24
Receive overdue notices &
hold notices via email!
Come in and tell the
circulation desk staff
your name and email address.
Library Amnesty, April 12 - 19
Overdue books? Gnashing your teeth over that DVD that's 6 days overdue, with $1 a day fine? Return your overdue, radically overdue, and astronomically overdue library materials to the Spotswood Public Library during Amnesty Week, and for each item returned, the fine will be forgiven when the donation of a nonperishable food item is made to MCFOODS or the Spotswood Food Bank. This amnesty does not apply to lost or damaged materials.
Passport Day
Friday, May 12
1 - 3 PM in meeting room
To our enthusiastic YOGA participants:
Yes! We do plan to schedule more Yoga classes with instructor Colleen.
Thank you for interest and please be patient as we arrange the schedule!
Here's a shout-out to our volunteers!
Thanks to Marie, Barbara, Michele, Bianca, Luisa, James, Zach & Nick, Patrick, Ellen & Erin, Christopher, Samantha & Samantha, Fatema, Jessica & Lauren, Ms. Kardos & Ms. Cardone, Doug, P.K., Virginia & Ann, Eleanor & Bob, our Spotswood Library Trustees, our favorite students from the Vale Project (Bobby, Robert, Jessica & Allison ), and Miss Judy and her students from the Academy Learning Center! You are all wonderful!
Our volunteers will be honored with lunch at the library on Friday, May 2nd.
B O O K S A L E
May 24 - June 21
All you can carry for $5 days: June 20- 21
All sales final.
All proceeds benefit the
library and its programs.
Chess, anyone?
The Chess Club meets at the Spotswood Library
alternate Monday evenings, from 6 to 7:30.
All ages welcome!
You & Your Public Library
The Spotswood Public Library is a municipally supported library,
funded by your tax dollars. Yes, the library does receive some money
from Trenton, but the majority of our funding is generated locally. The
Spotswood Public Library receives the legally mandated funding of 1/3
of a mill of the municipality’s equalized evaluation. In 2007 this
translated to $285,000; in $2008, to $305,000.
For those of you who wonder, this is why Helmetta does not receive full
library services from Spotswood: that municipality is not contributing the
1/3 of a mill of their equalized evaluation to library services. Helmetta
residents are able to purchase a Spotswood library card for $50 a
year, but this card is valid only in Spotswood, not at the other 27 public
libraries that make up our library consortium of LMxAC (Libraries of
Middlesex Automation Consortium). LMxAC member libraries are (with
the exception of the Middlesex County College Library) all municipal
libraries funded at the 1/3 of a mill level. These are also libraries that
have opted to share resources and services, to the great benefit of their
communities. As a Spotswood resident you are entitled to borrowing privileges from
these libraries. This means you can either asked us to get that title from
Piscataway, or you can drive over to Sayreville and retrieve it yourself.
In this way, your 4,000 square foot Spotswood Public Library manages to
offer you access to 2.5 million items! Not a bad deal when you consider that
that 1/3 of a mill breaks down to $33 on each $100,000 of property
evaluation. So if your home is evaluated (for tax purposes) at
$200,000 you’re paying $66 a year in taxes toward the public library.
Thank you!
A New Jersey Public Library survey, conducted in June 2007, of 1800
residents, found that 71% of the respondents rated
public libraries as an essential community service
Public libraries receive less than 2% of local tax dollars, and 57%
said more money should be invested 83% of respondents consider
tax support of municipal public libraries to be a good
investment in their community.
The Trustees & Staff of the Spotswood Public Library
thank you for your continued support!
Libraries Matter!
The Friends of the Spotswood Public Library invite you to their SPRING FLING!
Saturday April 26th, 1 – 4 PM at the library.
Enjoy YOGA exercises - learn how to start DE-CLUTTERING - Tour RUTGERS GARDENS
Try a Springtime CRAFT - Free Refreshments! - Free Programs!
Gift Basket Raffle at 3:30
For more information, or to make a donation to the Raffle Baskets or the Refreshment Table,
please call the library at 732-251-1515.