“The Community’s Living Room”
Jennifer Breuer, Library Director at Glen Ridge Public Library, has transformed the town’s largest resource. The library is a well-loved establishment within the hearts of Glen Ridge citizens, and this is largely due to Breuer’s relentless effort to properly market the library, and to dust off the shining gem of the town. Voted New Jersey’s favorite library in Essex County in NJ Family, the library has managed to gain an increased budget, an increased outreach, and access for all ages, from babies to senior citizens, all while under Breuer’s direction.
“You’re the community’s living room, anyone can walk in your door, no matter what your background your history your socio-economic class, your education level, you can come to the library and use it however you need to use it,” Breuer says. The way that the library has come to be what we all know it as, is directly due to her contributions over the past 11 years. The way that she has managed to cultivate this environment of the lively, buzzing, center of the town is directly related to the library’s ability to cater to the community’s needs by assessing it’s ever-changing desires. “You can’t assume what your community wants, you have to ask them,” she says. The library has something for everyone. It has computers for students and senior citizens, as well as the lively, and at some times chaotic children’s section on the first floor which Jennifer says she, “wouldn’t want any other way”.
The Glen Ridge Library’s community is not like others. Not only is the environment of the library ever-changing and dynamic, but it challenges the stereotype of the typical American library. As Jennifer detailed, the typical library would consist of a quiet, empty library filled with librarians aggressively shushing people, but by noting her the blue-dyed ends of her hair Jennifer showed just how different the library’s environment truly is. Members can attest to this dynamic as well, one former volunteer stated, “it may seem like a cold concrete building but the friendly assistance of the Glen Ridge librarians, the carpeted and comfy floors and the aesthetically displayed array of top-sellers and classics invite any passerby to a warm afternoon”.
Everybody knows about the library, but that’s all thanks to Jennifer and the librarians over at the public library. By completely changing the trajectory of the library, turning it one-hundred-eighty degrees, it is the place that we all know and love. The library serves as many things to all members of the community: a place for kids to go after school, an educational resource, an activity center, but most importantly, the heart of Glen Ridge.
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