JCFPL :: Library Info

**The JCFPL regrets any inconvenience the closing of Pearsall Branch may cause residents. In order to meet the reading demands of the neighborhood, the Bookmobile will stop in front of 104 Pearsall Avenue every other week starting Wednesday, February 17th from 11: 45 to 12:45 pm. Books borrowed may be returned during Bookmobile stops.**

   Jersey City Free Public Library
   678 Newark Avenue, 2nd Floor
   Jersey City, NJ, 07306
   Phone: (201) 547 - 5666

Branch Manager: Susan Stewart
Assistant Director: Sonia Araujo
Jersey City Free Public Library Foundation Inc. Trustees
Executive Director: Priscilla Gardner

Bookmobile Schedule

Parks & Malls & Creative Grove Art Market

We encourage you to get your free yellow library card and to use the lending services of the Bookmobile. Schedules are published three times annually: October-January, February-May & June-September. Suggestions for changes can be made to Assistant Director Sonia Araujo: [(201) 547-4549] who supervises this mobile branch.

People who live, work, or study in Jersey City are eligible for Library cards. We will need evidence of your Jersey City address, or employment, or college or school registration. The card can be used at all branches of the Jersey City Public Library. Fill out an application and your new card will be mailed to your home address. If you already have our yellow and blue card, you do not need a new card.

Click here to print out a JCFPL library card application.

Bookmobile
Picture Gallery

Bookmobile History

      On May 8, 2008, the history of the Bookmobile took a major turn in the road, as that was the date when the brand new, custom-designed and -built, disabled-accessible Bookmobile appeared before the start of Casino Night & Silent Auction, the 5th Annual major fundraiser of the Jersey City Free Public Library Foundation, Inc.

     Parked in front of the Casino-In-The-Park within Lincoln Park, a county park in Jersey City, the new Bookmobile shed its cover to reveal the over 33-foot long vehicle at the ceremonial unveiling. The walls of the Bookmobile are lined with bookshelves that hold 2,000 books, with two small Public Access computers available for patrons to check e-mails. There’s a DVD player in the back of the bus, along with rest facilities. For library staff members, there is a dedicated computer to help facilitate both new and old patrons with their library card accounts and a microwave near the front. The new Bookmobile now can accommodate disabled patrons easily, with a retractable elevator lift that is hidden behind moveable bookshelves within the Bookmobile, so as not to waste any internal space.

     The road to the new Bookmobile took longer than the Library Foundation would have wanted, tallying three years to amass the necessary funding, which wound up being a total of $222,780.24. But through the efforts of the Jersey City Free Public Library Foundation Board of Trustees – especially Treasurer Michael A. Ryan and Library Foundation Executive Director Priscilla Gardner, for their fundraising abilities and for custom-designing the Bookmobile – in five annual fundraisers, three held at the Casino-In-the-Park, one at Liberty House and the other at Puccinni’s and two at P.J. Ryan’s, and other benefactors from the corporate, nonprofit and private sectors, the Bookmobile was paid in full – at no taxpayer expense!

     The Jersey City Free Public Library and the Library Foundation hold the following elected officials, corporations and nonprofits in high esteem, harboring with much gratitude: Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy, Councilwoman Viola Richardson and Councilmen William Gaughan and Peter Brennan for their attendance and continuing support at foundation fundraisers; and to the major sponsors, Comcast, Goldman, Sachs & Co., PSE&G, The Jerramiah T. Healy Charitable Foundation, The Provident Bank Foundation, and the Estate of Raymond Landis.

     The Jersey City Free Public Library Foundation, Inc. received its incorporation as a charitable organization on January 27, 2004 to support the mission of the library: to provide services and materials for the education, enrichment and entertainment of the people of Jersey City. The first round of individuals serving as foundation trustees were Chair Sandra B. Cunningham, Ervin Haynes, Joan Eccleston, Domenic Santana, Morris Winograd and Vice Chair James K. Morley, who later became chair. Since Mr. Morley then served in two capacities, as Library Board President and Library Foundation Chairman, in 2005 he relinquished the chairmanship to Kevin J. Ward, and also brought in Michael Ryan to serve as treasurer. It was in that second round of foundation board members, which included Morris Winograd, Kenneth Morrelli, Kirsten Micco, Joseph Panepinto Jr., Corresponding Secretary; Elizabeth Spinelli, Recording Secretary, Joseph A. Turula, Esq., where fundraising for the new Bookmobile took to the open road.

     The 2008 configuration of the Library Foundation Board is Kevin J. Ward, Chairman; Morris Winograd, Vice Chairman; Michael Ryan, Treasurer; Joseph Panepinto Jr., Corresponding Secretary; Elizabeth Spinelli, Recording Secretary; with Members Joseph A. Turula, Esq., Kathleen Hartye, Samantha Newman-Webster, Robert Burke and Margaret Crimmins. Library Director Priscilla Gardner also serves as executive director of the Library Foundation.

     The Jersey City Free Public Library Foundation, Inc. is chartered in Jersey City as a 501(c)(3) organization to receive charitable gifts. Benefactors can contribute to the foundation with gifts of cash, property, securities or real estate, trust arrangements, bequests in wills and by naming the foundation as beneficiary of a life insurance policy. The JCFPL Foundation hopes to encourage individuals and organizations to make financial contributions to the Foundation to assure that the library can continue its exceptional service far into the future.

     Assistant Library Director Sonia Araujo oversees the Bookmobile and its staff, with Five Corners Branch Manager Susan Stewart overseeing the day-to-day management, and the Jersey City Free Public Library Foundation Trustees & Executive Director. The Jersey City Free Public Library’s mobile branch brings library services to patrons throughout Jersey City five days a week during the daytime, Mondays through Fridays.

The Bookmobile’s First Run

     Although the soothsayer in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar warned him, in the descriptive words of the day, “Beware the Ides of March,” it was the patrons of the Jersey City Free Public Library who warmed to the 15th of March in 1954 for the dedication of the first Bookmobile.

     In a February 26, 1954 article of The Jersey Journal, plans for the dedication were announced. “The bookmobile arrived in the city yesterday but has not been officially turned over to the library. It will have a capacity of from 1,500 to 2,000 volumes. The plan is to have it visit various sections of the city. It will be stationed at certain given points at given hours for the lending of books.”

     In over a half century of being in operation, the Bookmobile has become a fixture on the Jersey City scene, providing families and senior citizens with recreational reading. In response to popular demand, the Bookmobile now operates on a seven-day-a-week schedule that is set every four months, on alternating weekly schedules (Red Route / Blue Route).

     In 2002, the Bookmobile received a facelift in the refurbishing of its chassis. New paint and lettering adorned the Bookmobile, as well as its receiving a new generator, thanks to The Provident Bank, Goldman Sachs and East Coast Collision, Inc. of Jersey City.

Lending periods

We loan books for one month. We visit each stop every two weeks. If we miss your stop because of bad weather, mechanical problems or a holiday weekend, you will not be charged any fines for returning it when we next visit. Fines will not be collected on the Bookmobile but you will receive a bill by mail for any late charges.