Upper Saddle River residents rediscover library during quarantine – NorthJersey.com

UPPER SADDLE RIVER — The borough’s public library is a busy place these days, if remotely.

The newest in the library’s “Leaders are Readers” YouTube series featuring Fire Chief Brandon Bach reading “Dot the Fire Dog” drew 200 viewers during its first hour on Thursday.

“This falls under the heading of things they can’t teach you in library school,” said Director Kathleen McGrail. “How to run a library without a library building.”

The coronavirus has increased member demand for its regular offerings, McGrail said. In addition to borrowing books, CDs and DVDs electronically, requests for their Mango Languages instruction program have gone from 45 to 605 users per month. Readership of the on-line New York Times app climbed from 100 to 300 viewers. Requests for financial reports on Morningstar Investing Classroom have spiked from 300 to 1,700 requests per month.

“It’s as if people didn’t know they needed their library as much as they do now,” McGrail said. “It’s like, ‘I didn’t know my library offered all this’.”

It has also inspired her staff to “create content” aimed at their various interest groups, even though they can only reach them remotely.

“People who work in libraries have to like people,” McGrail said. “All of us miss not only our colleagues but the people we see in the library all the time’.”

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The “Leaders are Readers” series is the newest, starting with Mayor Joanne Minichetti reading “Somebody and the Three Blairs.” McGRail has offered one book club using Google Hangouts while another used Skype. 

Library staff has also transformed its weekly in-house children’s programs to a series of videos drawing an even broader audience on YouTube. The YouTube version of “Miss Linda” Miko’s 10:15 a.m Wednesday drop-in storytime now gets “in excess of 300 views” each week.

“It’s exciting for them to do things in new and different ways,” McGrail said.

Other offerings include a children’s craft series by children’s librarian Erin Douglas and teen projects by young adult specialist Debby Davidowitz.

“We’re just trying to find ways to take the love of the community so tjey they can continue to connect with us,” McGrail said.

Upper Saddle River is one of 77 municipalities in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, and Passaic counties that share their library catalogs via the BCCLS consortium. Residents of towns that have libraries in the consortium can sign up for library membership cards at no cost in their municipal library.

Residents of municipalities that do not have their own libraries can inquire at neighboring libraries the cost and circumstances under which they can obtain a card.  

Marsha Stoltz is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stoltz@northjersey.com Twitter: @marsha_stoltz

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