Edith Beckett New Jersey State Library

 Local unemployment rates ranging between 6.2 and 13.2 percent  Incredible diversity by ethnicity, race, language, age, education, occupation, and lifestyle  304 library organizations with widely varying financial and staff resources, budgets, and governance structures

 Increased need for library services  Shrinking funding base

 Applied for a grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP)  We received $6.7 million in funding and created NJWorks! to help New Jersey’s public libraries support the economic recovery of our state

 Help libraries expand services to the unemployed and underemployed by: o Enhancing training opportunities for library staff and patrons o Improving broadband capability and workstation availability in New Jersey libraries

 Provide libraries with promotional materials to help them advertise job readiness computer courses and electronic resources  Provide up to 938 new workstations to libraries across the state  Offer affordable pricing for high-speed Internet access services to libraries from the state’s major service providers

 Learning Express' Job & Career Accelerator (available now)  Frost & Sullivan market research reports (coming soon)  NJN Workforce Development Portal (coming soon)

 Professional development workshops for library staff  Basic job readiness computer training for any library user

 Project timeline: July 2010 until June  Project website: