A Common Place for All

Book excerpt: Mr. Bordone received his MLS from the Palmer School of Library Science at Long Island University, New York, in 1997. He has served as a part time librarian at New Jersey's Montclair State University since 1995, a position he still holds today. After working full time as the School Media Specialist at St. Mary High School in Rutherford, New Jersey for six years, Mr. Bordone served as director of the Bogota Public Library, in Bogota, New Jersey. In December of 2003 he left Bogota to become a Reference Librarian at the Passaic Public Library in Passaic, New Jersey. Inspiration to write this book came from his desire to create a brief library history link to the library's webpage. Besides reading James passion is computers, history and animal rescue. He currently lives in Guttenberg New Jersey with his mother and five cats. This book documents a chronological history of a library whose roots can be traced to the Civil War period. It tells the story of the library's growth from one to nine branches and back to its current status of only one branch, documenting the interesting personalities who served it along the way. Although the Passaic Public Library may be an ordinary library in an urban community in New Jersey, it really is a microcosm of all communities, in that it has witnessed an exploding growth of immigrants over the past century and has been challenged financially to provide for this growing community, while at the same time it has struggled to keep up with the ever-growing and ever-changing trend of technology. Despite these demands, the Passaic Public Library has continued to fulfill its responsibilty to the community and the immigrant community in particular, by providing programs for both adults and children.