Ocean library director reaches career milestone

Elaine McConnell is now the longest serving director of the Ocean County Library.

According to a press release, McConnell, who has led the library system since March 5, 1984, bested the previous mark set by Miriam R. Evans who served as director from Aug. 1, 1948 until Nov. 30, 1971, a total of 8,521 days. McConnell surpassed that record July 5.

Library staff celebrated the milestone the following day with a reception in the Toms River branch.

"Longevity, in and of itself, is not what is important to me," McConnell said. "I am grateful, however, for the opportunity that I have had to participate in the long-term growth and development of the Ocean County Library. It has been a truly rewarding experience."

Supervising Librarian Elizabeth Cronin was the first to notice McConnell was coming up on the record while she researched a reference question about the library.

"I came across a list of the library's directors and saw that Miss Evans served 23 years," Cronin said. "I was aware that Elaine was coming up on 23 years herself because we both started working for the library in March 1984."

Cronin said she "crunched the numbers" on an Internet calendar and found that McConnell would equal Evans' record July 4.

Under both women the library system has seen tremendous growth.

When Evans began the library had 43,000 books in its collection that was housed in a single building near the Ocean County Court House in Toms River, an open-sided panel truck that served as a bookmobile, six employees and a budget of $17,000 that served a population of 46,000.

When she retired the library had grown to four branches (a three-building campus in Toms River, Brick Township, Long Beach Island and Point Pleasant) and a fifth was under construction in Tuckerton. It owned two modern bookmobiles, had a budget of more than $482,000 and employed 45 people. At the time Ocean County had 138,000 residents, according to the press release.

In 1984 McConnell inherited a library system with 14 branches and a book collection of about half a million volumes, plus a collection of vinyl records and video tapes. Its budget was $4.37 million and had a circulation of 1,379,046, serving nearly 380,000 residents.

The system now has 19 branches and two reading centers and has more than 600 full-time and part-time employees that serve a population of 557,000 people.

The library system now has a budget of $28.7 million and, according to the New Jersey State Library Association, led the state in 2006 in several important areas: total number of registered borrowers, 329,268 (Monmouth County Library System is second with 207,196); total circulation, 4,635,351 (Monmouth County Library System is second with 3,179,369); number of reference transactions, 1,495,871 (Monmouth County was second with 470,404); number of computers with Internet access for public use, 205 (Jersey City was second with 175); and total attendance at library-sponsored programs, 111,565 (Monmouth County was second with 63,583).

Ocean County Library has the third-most number of books on its shelves with 1,015,703, trailing the Newark Public Library (1,641,574) and the Monmouth County Library System (1,274,535).

"Thanks to the tremendous support the library receives from its residents, the Ocean County Library continues to thrive," said McConnell. "We are currently updating our strategic plan, developing a marketing plan and creating a virtual library to better serve our customers. My hat is off to the library staff and commission and the Board of Freeholders for their contributions to helping us live our mission of 'Connect-ing People ... Building Community.' "