About the New Jersey State Librarian

New Jersey State Library, Trenton, NJ

     2001-Present

Norma E. Blake has been New Jersey State Librarian since February 20, 2001. During her tenure, she has guided New Jersey libraries toward proactive collaborations that created working partnerships and relationships with a variety of educational and corporate institutions.  She has also forged relationships with the state’s economic development and commercial players from small businesses to the huge biotech industry. She has led libraries toward the future through the development of innovative programs that serve as national models and by convening conferences to help libraries prepare for their future roles.  Under her leadership the State Library supports everyone in New Jersey with a new kind of library service that addresses time and technology through 24/7 databases that provide essential information when and where people need it. Her vision propels libraries forward and challenges them to create the programs, products and services that will meet the needs of everyone in their communities. Norma is a sought-after speaker on library topics and has presented both nationally and internationally.

Awards

Norma was selected as Library Journal’s National Librarian of the Year 2008, received the Girl Scouts of South-Central New Jersey’s Women of Distinction Award in 2008, was elected New Jersey Library Association's Librarian of the Year in 1999 and President of the New Jersey Library Association (NJLA) from 1993-1994, was chosen as a member of Leadership NJ Class of 2000 and the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award 2005 by the NJLA’s Colleges and Universities Section. Burlington County League of Women Voters honored Norma as a 2010 Burlington County woman who makes a difference.

Innovative Projects Spearheaded by Norma E. Blake

• The New Jersey Knowledge Initiative (NJKI) won the Innovation Award from the National Council of State Governments for helping New Jersey’s economy by providing specialized databases for small businesses, researchers, students and teachers. In two years NJKI had 15 million downloads and saved New Jersey taxpayers $68.5 million dollars over retail prices.
• QandANJ, the nation’s first virtual 24/7 information system, providing New Jersey residents who need information with access to live librarians.
• Super Librarian, New Jersey’s first statewide marketing campaign, designed to promote the
  use of libraries by teens. It received national attention when it was featured as the cover of Library Journal on May 15, 2004 and was featured in over 2,000 commercials, a comic book was written and published in two languages, an online store was developed and a YouTube/comic contest was created that attracted over 17,000 voters.
• JerseyCat, a highly successful interlibrary loan system, connecting people to the collections of over 800 libraries. In 2010 over 17 million searches were made statewide.
• JerseyClicks, New Jersey’s first federated search engine, providing access to 27 statewide online resources with the ease of one-click searching similar to Google.
• Trustee Training Institutes. implemented to provide annual meetings, training over 1,400 Library Trustees since the Institutes began in 2003.
• Summer Reading Club, expanded to a statewide initiative, keeping children and teens reading throughout their vacation. In 2010, 103,000 children and teens read 1.7 million books.
• JerseyConnect, provided over 300 New Jersey libraries an economical solution to Internet access and services, delivered through the services of the State Library’s IT Department.
• Get a Library Card Online, was an innovative solution to New Jersey residents needing access to statewide 24/7 information at times their local library was closed
• Innovative programming for the Blind, Deaf and Hard of Hearing such as American Sign Language storytimes, specialized summer reading programs and Audiovision radio reading service for the blind providing news 24/7 on the Web.
• MidAtlantic Futures Conference, the first of its kind for New Jersey libraries, with over 400 librarians from four states attending. Norma followed up by creating a Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future of Libraries, 2007-2008.
• Adaptive Computer Lab, in partnership with the Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired,  located at the Talking Book and Braille Center to train people with visual impairments.
• Academy of Library Leadership, founded to increase the skills and abilities of middle managers and seasoned librarians, involving library leadership from all over the state.
• InfoTubey Award, awarded to five libraries nationally, including the New Jersey State Library, for outstanding You Tube library-related video production, garnering national attention. Other marketing awards have been received from the Jersey Shore Public Relations and Advertising Association, the NJ Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, the New Jersey Library Association, the American Library Association and the NJ Communications, Advertising and Marketing Association.
• Pennies for Peace, which involved libraries of all types statewide in collecting pennies to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Pennies for Peace was the State Library’s Lincoln Bicentennial Project to honor Lincoln for his belief in education. Pennies for Peace expanded to other state libraries all over the country utilizing the New Jersey State Library program model. The State Library successfully partnered with the Pennies for Peace Foundation to develop this pilot program based on Greg Mortenson’s best selling book, Three Cups of Tea.
• Snapshot Day, which measured library use and services in one day statewide with photos and statistics collected in libraries. Snapshot Day has been adopted by the American Library Association as a national advocacy model which helps to demonstrate the value of libraries in their communities.
• Tell Us Your Story Campaign, where librarians learned new marketing skills in a marketing boot camp; attended a workshop by marketing guru Seth Godin, and created videos for their library to tell their library story. Awards were given for the best videos in a special Academy awards type red carpet event and the State Library was honored to receive the American Library Association’s John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award for this marketing initiative, the highest honor given by the association for marketing and public relations work
• Celebrity Library Champions, where famous authors and sports figures agreed to become library champions for the states’ libraries. Large billboard pictures of the champions with their personal quotes about the importance of libraries and literacy were developed. The posters will also be used on the backs of trucks statewide.
• Gates Opportunity Online Grant, given to the NJ State Library to provide for a consultant who worked with State Library staff to apply for stimulus broad band funding for public computing centers. The Broadband Grant is completing a major connectivity goal of the State Library and is benefitting libraries statewide.
• National Preservation Week, for ALA's first annual National Preservation Week, "Pass it On..." NJSL developed and presented the pilot workshop on teaching librarians and the general public how to preserve their library and family treasures and then made the workshop materials available to ALA for all libraries to use
• The Outspoken Library, created to serve persons with disabilities and their families for downloading of digital materials from within their local public library. As of 2011, thirty-two public libraries and one Veterans’ Center house these kiosks.
• Annual Library Champions Event to honor outstanding advocates of NJSL, TBBC and libraries throughout the state

Grants

Under Norma’s leadership the New Jersey State Library has actively sought and received grants to improve or expand services for library patrons.  The following grants were awarded:

• IMLS federal grant for development of NJ Digital Highway that has digitized and posted over 1,000 NJ historical resources to the Web
• Two IMLS federal grants for Urban Library Recruitment, training urban library staffs for AA, BA, MLIS and PhD degrees
• Gates Foundation grants for computer training, security and hardware; for e-rate assistance for the state’s public libraries; and to provide matching funds for the federal BTOP grant
• WebJunction grant to help libraries reach out to Spanish populations
• Verizon grant for Access NJ for literacy and for videoconferencing
•  PSEG grant for live homework help for students
• Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) federal recovery act grant for public computing centers, bringing connectivity upgrades, computers, databases and training to public library staff and customers to assist in economic recovery efforts
• Barnes and Noble grant for statewide summer reading
• Comcast grant for computer lab equipment at the Talking Book and Braille Center
• The deForest Trust  grant for a literacy van at the Talking Book and Braille Center
• $45 million library construction grant that provided  funding to 68 libraries and generated $280 million in economic development
• A federal appropriations grant that created a Veterans’ Outreach Campaign
• Funding from Disabilities Rights of New Jersey for the purchase of Victor handheld audio book players for people suffering from traumatic brain injuries
• In-kind contribution from the Grounds for Sculpture to donate their facilities for the biennial TBBC Fall Festival

The New Jersey State Library awards grants to public libraries for literacy and diversity training, as well as for pilot grant programs such as Libraries Trading Spaces Teen Spaces and Senior Spaces; grants awarded to renovate and improve library spaces using marketing ideas and techniques.

Boards

At present, Norma serves on the boards of the Southern New Jersey Development Council, the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, the State Broadband Committee, and the State Council of Adult Literacy Education Services. Her professional organizations/affiliations include the New Jersey Library Association, American Library Association, Public Library Association, Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), secretary of Chief Officers of State Library Agencies in the Northeast (COSLINE), and 2011-2012 President of the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA).

Education

Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ  M.L.S. 1976 – Library Science/Educational Media; 

Montclair State College, Upper Montclair, NJ  B.A. 1971 – English/Reading, NJ Teacher certification.

Previous Experience

Burlington County Library System Director, Westampton, NJ - 1993 – 2001

County department head and representative to 400,000 people with 18 library sites in 37 communities of the state’s largest county.  The library has 165 employees and lends over one and a half million materials annually to over a million visitors.

Gloucester County Library System Director, Sewell, NJ 1989-1993

County department head and community liaison to 80,000 people with 8 library sites in 16 communities. 

Other Experience

West Deptford Public Library Director 1983-1989; South River Public Library Assistant Director 1975-1983; Adult Education Teacher of ABE, GED and ESL 1968-1980 full and part-time in Paterson, Montclair, Plainfield and Jamesburg; Junior High School Reading Teacher 1973-1974.

The State Librarian may be contacted at: (609) 278-2640, Ext. 101 or nblake@njstatelib.org

2011