MCL an Outspoken Library

Under a grant from Disability Rights NJ to the State Library Talking Books & Braille Center, we're able to offer preloaded flash drives of audiobooks to eligible area residents. Those dealing with low vision, who register with the TBBC, can select from free services of the Outspoken Library:
audiobook player; audiobooks; braille books; downloadable audiobooks and audio magazines and news reading services (Audiovision, Newsline).

For more information on obtaining an audiobook flash drive contact our program coordinator Joanne Cronin or call Reader Services at (973) 285-6970.

IDing new businesses

Reference has just been asked: how do I identify new businesses in the area? There are several sources:

1. Search County Clerk's filings, document type search for TN (tradename), specifying the date range you want. Return includes name(s) of the principal and the incorporation document, which ID's type of business, location, etc. (We've also used searches for tradename surrenders to locate business space availability, as where a pizza parlor might be available for take over.)
2. NJ Business Gateway, Division of Revenue, Dept of the Treasury, sells tradename records. Do a tradename/service mark search, specifying your date range. You can purchase the list online, from the state ($4.17, for 119 filings Jan. 1-Mar. 1, 2013.)
3. Use ReferenceUSA, in our remote services page. Do a Custom Search, use Special Selects/years in business plus any geography or business type you might want. Since this search does not include cyber- or homebased businesses the list is miniscule compared to the state and county government lists.

Contact the reference desk if we can help with any of this.

Old postcards?

Have any Morris County postcards? We'd love to scan and add them to the 200+ Morris postcards we've lately mapped in the Library of Congress ViewShare project. We've lots of Lake Hopatcong and Morristown, surprises in Long Hill and Madison..and not too many from other towns. What's in your attic or scrapbook?

William Penn didn't sleep here

While George Washington did sleep here, in much of Morris County, no, William Penn didn't own all the land in the county, prior to his death in 1718. (Actually, he wasn't here much, traveling between England and Ireland.) Penn was one of 36 proprietors in East and West Jersey, acquiring some of his interest in a debt sale after George Berkeley's death.

Land transfers and holdings in Morris in the colonial period are obscure and ill-defined, in part because property boundaries are described as "to a corner white oak tree, thence crossing it again" .."crossing ye said river again to another white oak corner tree, thence..." One good storm and there go the property boundaries? We've posted an overview and suggested resources for 17th c property titles research.

West Jersey 1676

Reviewing the 1676 "The Concessions and agreements of the proprietors, freeholders and inhabitants of the province of West New-Jersey, in America" (wearing archival gloves to handle the wonderful 1747 volume), Chapter XVI:

That no Men, nor number of Men upon Earth, hath Power or Authority to rule over Men's Consciences in religious Matters, therefore it is consented, agreed and ordained, that no Person or Persons whatsoever within the said Province, at any Time or Times hereafter, shall be any ways upon any pretence whatsoever, called in Question, or in the least punished or hurt, either in Person, Estate, or Priviledge, for the sake of his Opinion, Judgment, Faith or Worship towards God in Matter of Religion. But that all and every such Person, and Persons, may from Time to Time, and at all Times, freely and fully have, and enjoy his and their Judgments, and the exercise of their Consciences in Matters of religious Worship throughout all the said Province.

Exactly 100 years later Jefferson and Franklin would write the Declaration of Independence.

Business focus group

The library would like to put together, in the first quarter of the year, a focus group of businesspeople from local small to mid-sized companies. Do you know the business resources we have for you? Are they in your preferred formats, print or online? Does your operation need research assistance? Let's talk about it. The northwest New Jersey Small Business Development Center has offered to also do an info session for the group.

Call (973-285-6969) or email the reference desk to sign on to a roundtable about your business information needs