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Take a Past and Present Historical Tour Through SCLSNJ’s Bridgewater Branch this Winter
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Dec 12, 2023
by SCLSNJ
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The Somerset County Library System of New Jersey (SCLSNJ) invites you to take a journey into the past at the Bridgewater branch. Expert branch staff will be offering rolling historical tours, walking participants through architectural, historical photographs past and present, beginning January 2 through February 27, 2024.
“The brief tour, lasting about 15-20 minutes, will be a look back into the past but also a look into the inner workings of our Library,” said Librarian Chris Murray. “I hope the tours bring in people who haven't been to the library in a while. Mostly, I want people to remember their library and how it's survived for this long; it’s survived for this long because of the love customers and the staff have for this institution.”
Continued Murray, “The historical tour is a cool reminiscence that I love - looking at before and after pictures, walking through the space - that's the kind of nerd I am. Seeing how much things have changed and, at the same time, how things have stayed the same. One of my favorite pictures is of the courtyard. Forty years ago, we had little tiny saplings and shrubs and now we have full-on trees.”
The idea for the historical photography happened by chance, but branch staff are thrilled to be able to offer customers a unique, hands-on brush with the past.
“I don't know how the photos got to me, but I'm glad they did,” said Librarian Ken Kaufman.
Continued Kaufman, “If we don't do the local history, who else is going to do it? We're accessible to the public; everybody walks through our doors. We're the first line of communication to bring awareness of our local history to the public. We also are in a good position to maintain things if they're related to our local history. We organize and catalog them, and then future generations can access those items that you can't get on the internet.”
All SCLSNJ locations are hubs for historical research and exploration. The Library offers an abundance of both online and physical resources, free research support from expertly trained staff, and more.
Continued Murray “A lot of people visit the Library to explore their family history - people from all around the world. We’ve had requests from Europe, Australia, Canada, all over.”
Continued Kaufman, “I think the main thing that we have that makes us unique is our newspapers. There are some papers that haven’t been digitized, like ‘The Messenger-Gazette,’ and we have editions of that paper from 1823 to 2007. There's a million little things to explore in those papers for anyone who's doing heavy-duty research.”
“Our New Jersey reference collection is a collection of about two or three thousand books,” said Murray. “This collection generally doesn't circulate so it is best accessed through a visit to the branch. We have encyclopedias of the state, we have a lot of genealogical indices, we have a large historical map collection, we have newspapers spanning from the 1800s to present, we have books on the history of neighborhoods in Bridgewater or Jersey City and all over. Our resources, including our microfilm, allow us to research very minute details.”
Historical tours will be hosted in January 2024 on January 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30. Historical tours will be hosted in February 2024 on February 6, 13, 20,and 27. Tours will be hosted at 11 a.m. and again at 3 p.m. on each designated day. Register to attend at SCLSNJ.org/events or call the branch for one-on-one registration support.
The Bridgewater branch is located at 1 Vogt Drive in Bridgewater. For more information, call (908) 458-8415 or email bridgewater@sclibnj.org. To discover all SCLSNJ has to offer, visit SCLSNJ.org or connect with SCLSNJ on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), or YouTube.