I've actually been coming here since the mid 1970s (I was a very immature teen), when my family…read moremoved from Passaic County to the Somerset County area. While geographically it wasn't really that far from where I grew up, it seemed like I had moved to a different universe to take up residence on an alien planet (took me a long time before I gained the semi-maturity and necessary perspective to realize that I was the one...awkward, anti-social teen that I was...who had the problem, not Somerset County). Be that as it may, books had always been a refuge for me, and I spent a lot of time in the libraries. In my area, there were 2; the Bernardsville library...located in a very old building which in Revolutionary War times had been called the Vealtown Inn and which was supposedly haunted by a ghost (I never saw him/her/it, but maybe it was a shy ghost, or as anti-social as I was)...;and the Bernards Township Library, a much newer establishment that had the requisite books but was missing the ghost.
A lot has changed in the intervening decades. Extensive construction has been done over the years, and I couldn't tell you what the original configuration of the library had been if you put a gun to my head. I also have to admit (rather guiltily) that I don't take out books anymore. They have numerous computers which I avail myself of on a frequent basis. I have my own computer at home, but the library provides a printer (and charges not much to print out copies of whatever you're looking at or reading on the computer). They also provide a service whereby one can go back and look up historic newspapers (I like going back and perusing ancient issues of the NY Times). In the back, near the periodical section (which is pretty extensive), books, CD's and DVD's are for sale for very minimal money. I bought approximately a dozen CD's recently for about 2 dollars. The selection isn't necessarily great-- there are more Miley Cyrus and Michael Bolton CD's than Bach or Beethoven, the books I saw might just as well have been gracing the shelves of the local Wal-Mart, I noticed several "Bruce Almighty" and "Dukes of Hazard" DVD's, and a Glenn Beck audio CD that has been gathering dust for many moons (I was tempted to buy it just for laughs, but I can't stand to listen to a grown man cry). Still, there's occasionally a winner on the shelves, you can find wheat amongst the chaff, and you can't beat the price. Downstairs, by the children's section, somewhat more interesting books are available for free. Again, the scope of the subject matter offered, the quality of the author(s) can vary, but the free stuff usually contains a more eclectic selection (biographies, novels, histories, self-help, etc.) than the stuff available upstairs and...hey!...it's free!
Librarians are helpful and friendly (some of them have been working here for a long time and feel like old friends, even though I don't know their names), and there's a very nice, relaxed vibe about the place, even though it's up-to-date and modern. There are "quiet rooms" for those wishing to study without disturbance, there's a tremendous variety of books (of course), and everyone can feel welcome here, from awkward, anti-social teens killing time on the computer (just don't be too anti-social, or noisy...it is a library, after all), to high school and college students doing research, to middle-aged "go getters" (or whatever they're calling Yuppies these days) perhaps studying the market and perhaps formulating a market plan (or maybe just idling their lunch hour away in a peaceful, comfortable environment), to conversational old geezers like me. And the library has been around long enough by now to maybe have acquired a ghost or 2 of its own!
All in all, a great place to do homework, research, expand one's horizons, enrich one's mind, or maybe just spend some quiet, reflective time with a book.
