Cliffs Notes, Acceptable Uses

Back in August 1958 an enterprising man developed a series of small, yellow and black striped books that summarized several Shakespeare plays. Known as Cliffs Notes, they soon developed a reputation among students as the place to go if you hadn't read the book. So then teachers began forbidding the use of Cliffs Notes. That certainly did nothing to impact sales, and over the years the line has continued to expand. Barnes & Noble, seeing a good thing, publishes Spark Notes with the same intent.
A brief survey of our Library staff confirmed what I knew to be true: in our Library the primary usage is from older adults who wish to refresh their memory of a book read years ago, read something about a work they will just never get to, or brush up on some facts for an upcoming book discussion.
As I prepare for a book discussion of The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl, I picked up the Cliffs Notes for Dante's Inferno. There are so many references in The Dante Club to sections of the Inferno, that I just needed to expand my knowledge. I certainly intend to disclose my source to my group, and they too will be pleased to know of these gems of materials on our Library shelves.
For the web savvy, the companies that offer Cliffs Notes and Spark Notes have websites
CliffsNotes.com and Sparknotes.com that offer expanded serivces through their websites. You may view the particular book, purchase for download a PDF version, or order the actual book version.

Create a Legacy

As we prepare for our expansion, we have designed a mechanism whereby you can be a part of this exciting project. We've created several donor opportunities, each of which provides a means for your name to be permanently placed in the Library. From pavers in our Contributor's Courtyard, to higher levels of giving, we invite you to take a look at this options, and select the one that most appeals to you. In addition to the specific donation amounts indicated in our promotional brochure, there are many other designated places that are able to be named and marked by a plaque or appropriate recognition. Specific areas within the building, study rooms, gardens and outside seating areas are being designed to provide larger donor opportunities.

Create a Legacy Pamphlet (PDF Format)

Happy New Year 2007

Our most noteworthy plan for 2007 is to break ground for our expansion. We are aiming for April. In fact, we'd like to see it happen on April 1st. On April 1, 1989 we opened the doors of the Monroe Township Library for the first time. Housed on the lower level of the Municipal Building, we crowded all our services into 4,000 sq. ft. Now, we are bursting out of 21,000 sq. ft.

While we are working on the bricks and mortar part of our Library, we will be spending a great deal of time this year in introspection. We are fine tuning our latest Strategic Plan and find that our focus, while we are building the structural framework for our expansion, is on our services. We've had retreats for both Library staff and the Library Board to discuss what we do well, what more we need to do and how best to do it. For a Library is far more than a building. We spent years planning the added spaces, and we need to determine that our service plan reflects the philosophy guiding all our decisions.

It's a great year ahead!