New Holmdel Public Library/Learning Center Welcomes First Clients

HOLMDEL, NJ - Some of the new users of the Holmdel Public Library are not even human. But they love a good story as much as the next person.

Alanah Mellin, who has been the children's librarian for 15 years, this afternoon was getting comfortable with her new space, which not only includes stacks of shelves but a dedicated room where children can have special experiences like crafts or story time when today they were scheduled to read to a variety of therapy dogs.

Later tonight, it was not lions or bears oh my but rather lizards, snakes, frogs and bugs, she explained.

"While there is a big interest in science, I find it is the animals more than anything else" that bring the children into the stacks, she said. In this branch of the Monmouth County Library System, she has acknowledged she has tried everything from magic to animals.

Mellin was smiling broadly as she pointed out how spacious the children's section was, which was preferable to the previous space, cramped in the municipal building basement.

"I knew it would happen eventually," she said. "Since I started, there has always been talk.""

The new $1.7 million public library is not just a library, Mayor Gregory Buontempo has said consistently.

He said he would like to see it referred to as a library and learning center because of its innovative and interactive nature.

Architect Anthony Iovino agrees, speaking of the "synergy" between the library and its location, within the Bell Works building which boasts technology-heavy businesses, retail and a cafe and restaurant. Bell Works will bring people to the library and the library will bring people to Bell Works, said Iovino during a taped statement on the town website.

"It is not just about library," Iovino said. "It is about community."

The old, overcrowded Holmdel Library shut its doors Dec. 6 so staff could begin moving books over to the new site, Buontempo has said. The library, which previously was scheduled to open just before Thanksgiving, was delayed for minor fixes. The carpeting was custom and had to be installed before the custom furniture could come in.

After negotiating with Somerset. the Bell Works developer, Holmdel made the decision earlier this year to move the library out of its cramped, 3,000-square-foot space in the basement of town hall to an airy 18,000-square-foot new home at Bell Works, which will be loaded with new technology and online resources.

Bontempo said the facility will also include memorabilia from the old home of Bell Labs, where workers discovered the modem and created the transistor and won a Nobel Prize for their research.

"Six years ago, I was expanding this basement, I was going to give it more space in the basement," he explained. But the cost did not justify that expansion. "It didn't make sense."

He went to the head of Somerset, Ralph Zucker, who shared the vision, for bringing the community into the new Bell Works site. "It became a natural fit," Buontempo said. Other partnerships were established: the Holmdel Library Foundation bought the bookshelves. Meanwhile, the mayor and others worked at collecting the historical artifacts that came out of the original Bell Labs so people would know the significance of the site.

"The technology not only changed Holmdel, it changed the world,' he said.

The new library is located inside Bell Works; patrons park in the front parking lot and walk in the main entrance to access it, just passed the atrium. The library provides free WiFi and computer work stations. The township currently is building a sidewalk on Crawfords Corner Road to connect the high school, about a mile away, to Bell Works.

The library will boast several private "break-out rooms," which will feature drop-down screens, computers to help people collaborate on projects. Classroom space also is provided and it is the mayor's hope that Holmdel Schools Superintendent Robert McGarry will bring science and math classes over from the high school for lectures inside the library, where they will meet and talk with employees from Bell Works technology companies. The mayor explained the committee looked at the best libraries in the world and what colleges and universities expected from local libraries before Holmdel created this model for collaboration.

Eventually, he hopes the building will become a de-facto community center. "We don't have anything else like this in town," the mayor said.

A Montessori school is planned next to the library, also inside the atrium, Buontempo has said. The Montessori school will serve the children of employees at Bell Works as well as others in the area.

The library was built as part of a $1.7 million deal between Holmdel and Bell Works owner and Somerset Development. Holmdel pushed for the developer to provide library space and Somerset provided $1 million toward the project. The remaining money was cobbled together by the Holmdel Library Foundation via fundraising and private donations from exiting Bell Works tenants.

Clients tour the new Holmdel Public Library. Photograph by Carol Gorga Williams/Patch Staff.