New Jersey LSTA Five Year Plan, Part 3

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Services to Targeted Populations With Special Needs

Goal:

To provide improved library services to targeted populations of New Jersey residents with special needs to assure that these residents have equity in access to library resources, programs and services.

Priorities for Development of Grant Programs and Statewide Services:

Priority will be given for developing grant programs and statewide services for the following targeted populations, of all ages, who are having difficulty using a library and/or who are unserved or underserved in urban and rural communities:

persons with disabilities (visual, physical, hearing, learning, etc.)
persons for whom English is not their native language
persons lacking literacy skills
persons who are unemployed
persons who are economically disadvantaged

Preference will be given to programs serving targeted populations who are economically disadvantaged, with the exception of programs for persons with disabilities for whom economic disadvantage will not be a criteria.

Eligible projects:

Eligible projects will promote targeted library services to people of diverse geographic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, to people with disabilities, to people who are economically disadvantaged and to people with limited functional literacy or information skills.

Projects may involve the use of technology to meet the special needs of targeted populations. When appropriate, grant program guidelines will allow for both technical and non-technical solutions to meet users' needs.

Some grant programs will encourage eligible libraries to collaborate or form partnerships with other organizations such as private social service agencies, state and county agencies, special libraries (e.g., hospitals, agencies servicing the blind, etc.) and state and county institutional libraries.

Need for Proposed Projects

The priorities developed for serving targeted populations with special needs reflect the diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds of many New Jersey residents.

New Jersey's population is becoming increasingly diverse. In 1995, New Jersey ranked 5th highest in the nation among destinations for the arrival of international immigrants. New Jersey and New York have the most diverse immigrant populations in terms of countries of origin of all other states in the nation.

The percentage of people who live in households where English is not the primary language spoken ranges from 12 percent in Salem County to 51 percent in Hudson County. New Jersey ranks 6th highest in the nation in the numbers of Asians (Asian Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese) and Hispanics living in the state. New Jersey public, school, and academic libraries have long recognized the need to serve diverse multicultural groups, of all ages, who do not speak or read English fluently. However, library staffs face special problems in identifying popular reading geared to their interests and language skills, dealing with vendors, and cataloging non-English titles. The use of LSTA funds to continue supporting the Multicultural Materials Acquisitions Center to provide statewide services to all types of libraries is a cost-effective way to address these problems and assist libraries to develop more extensive resources in this area.

New Jersey's employment growth through 2005 is projected to be slower than that of the nation. Libraries in New Jersey are providing unemployed residents access to online and print job vacancy information and to information on careers and resume writing. Libraries also play a significant role in creating a computer literate workforce and assisting adults to upgrade their job skills. Public libraries often provide the only source of access to computers and electronic information resources for economically disadvantaged New Jersey residents in underserved urban and rural areas.

Although New Jersey's poverty rate ranked 36th in the nation, the state has many areas where residents are living in poverty. In these areas local property taxes often cannot adequately support quality library services. The 1990 Census indicated that in 42 census tracts in nine New Jersey municipalities, more than 40 percent, and as much as 60 percent, of the population lived in poverty. Most of these tracts were in Camden and Newark, with others located in Atlantic City, Bloomfield, Jersey City, Long Branch and Paterson.

New Jersey ranked 9th highest in the nation, in 1995, for the number of public high school graduates. Yet, the 1990 Census indicates that in 130 municipalities between 50 to 20 percent of the population does not have a high school diploma. The counties having the highest percentage of the population not having a high school diploma are: Cumberland County (33.3 percent), Atlantic County (26.7 percent), Ocean County (24.4 percent), Gloucester County (22.1 percent) and Camden County (21.9 percent). Often, people lacking high school diplomas do not have a high level of literacy skills. In FY 1996, the New Jersey chapter of the Literacy Volunteers of America reported that they served 6,617 adults in twenty counties in New Jersey. Many New Jersey libraries play an active role in coordinating literacy programs for people in their communities and in providing information literacy training.

Eleven thousand five hundred blind and physically handicapped New Jersey residents are served by the New Jersey Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (LBH). LSTA funds will continue to support the statewide services provided by LBH. New Jersey libraries will also be assisted, through grant programs, to meet the requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) to provide equal access to information in print and electronic formats for persons who are visually and physically disabled.

Competitive and Targeted Grant Programs

During the five year period, October 1, 1997 through September 30, 2002, the State Library will distribute LSTA funds through a program of competitive and targeted grants.

Libraries Eligible to Apply for Grants

The following types of libraries are eligible to apply for competitive grants or can be awarded targeted grants:

All public libraries except for those that do not meet all Per Capita State Aid requirements as listed in the publication New Jersey Public Library Statistics for the fiscal year prior to the grant fiscal year;
all academic libraries.

All libraries (academic, institutional, public, school library media centers and special libraries) will be eligible to participate in the following types of programs funded by LSTA:

receive services or participate in the administration of a project when the grant program's guidelines require a public or academic library to collaborate with another type of library or service organization to provide a service or program to a targeted population with special needs; and
receive services from a public or academic library when the grant program's guidelines require that the grantee provide services to other libraries in its local or regional area or on a statewide basis.

The definition of various types of libraries is provided in the New Jersey Administrative Code, 6:68-1.2.

Activities for Targeted Populations with Special Needs: Grant Programs

Equity of access to the Internet and to information in print and electronic formats for persons who are disable through the use of computers, software and adaptive technology, barrier free speech-equipped workstations, scanners, magnifiers and other assistive devices.

Literacy tutoring, family literacy programs, and English as a Second Language (ESL) training programs for economically disadvantaged persons in underserved urban and rural communities.

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs to assist adults with limited English skills to understand American culture and develop skills needed to live in an American community. These services will be offered to economically disadvantaged persons in underserved urban and rural communities.

Job information, career counseling information, electronic and print access to job vacancy information, etc. for the unemployed will be offered to economically disadvantaged persons in underserved urban and rural communities.

Computer literacy training programs for economically disadvantaged persons in underserved urban and rural communities.

Information literacy programs for economically disadvantaged persons, of all ages, in underserved urban and rural communities.

Program of Statewide Services

The New Jersey Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (LBH), administered by the State Library, provides statewide services to 11,500 New Jersey residents of all ages who are visually impaired, deaf or physically handicapped through the lending of materials in various formats, a machine lending service, a radio reading service, loan of assistive devices, sign language interpreting service, and a resource collection on blindness and deafness. Registered LBH patrons are able to use the Library's online public access catalog and select their own materials.

LBH provides consultant services to public and academic libraries and to schools on serving persons who are blind, deaf and learning disabled. A variety of programs are offered to LBH patrons including programs on the latest assistive devices and reading programs for blind children.

New this year, LBH has installed two barrier free, speech-equipped workstations providing access to the Internet and electronic resources. LBH will be expanding its consulting services to libraries to assist them in providing services to their disabled patrons.

The Multicultural Materials Acquisitions Center (MultiMAC), administered by the Newark Public Library, provides statewide services to all types of libraries through the purchasing, cataloging, and making available through bulk loans a wide variety of popular reading materials, for all age groups, in eleven languages which represent large concentrations of New Jersey residents for whom English is not their native language. The Center also provides information packets in eleven languages to make library collections and services accessible. Consultation services and workshops are provided to assist libraries to serve diverse multicultural populations.

Activities for Targeted Populations with Special Needs: Statewide Services Programs

New Jersey Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped provides statewide services to libraries and to New Jersey residents of all ages who are visually impaired or physically handicapped.

Multicultural Materials Acquisitions Center: Continue the contract to provide statewide services to assist libraries to serve diverse multicultural constituents with popular reading materials.

Consultant services to libraries will be provided by the New Jersey Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped on making the Internet and information in print and electronic formats accessible to people with disabilities through the use of computer, software and adaptive technology, barrier free speech-equipped workstations, scanners, magnifiers and other assistive devices.

Conference and other continuing education opportunities for providing library services for targeted populations with special needs will be sponsored by the State Library in coordination with other libraries and service providers.

Training workshops and consultation services on providing library services and programs for persons, of all ages, with disabilities and sensitivity training for working with persons with disabilities will be provided by the New Jersey Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped to New Jersey librarians serving the public.

Training workshops and consultation services on providing library services to multicultural and multiethnic communities will be provided by the Multicultural Materials Acquisitions Center to New Jersey librarians serving the public.

Consulting services on making library buildings accessible for persons with disabilities will be provided by the State Library to assist New Jersey libraries in meeting Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.

Go on to Part 4

Last updated: September 13, 2000.
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