Library

The Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation would take over the Rosenbach Museum and Library under the terms of a letter of intent approved Tuesday by their boards. The memorandum of understanding leaves important details to be negotiated, but aims to make the Rosenbach a subsidiary of the library by June 30. Such a deal would likely require the approval of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, and, depending on the way it is structured, perhaps also of Orphans' Court.

Medford Township's continued resistance to paying for maintenance on its county branch library "raises serious questions" as to whether it wishes to stay in such countywide services as emergency dispatch, recycling, farmland preservation, and the animal shelter, Freeholder Leah Arter told the township Tuesday. "Medford shouldn't draw a moat around its borders and isolate itself from shared services that work," Arter wrote in a letter to the township council. Arter called the council's views of library maintenance costs for the Pinelands branch "simplistic" and "upside down.

It's Women's History Month, and here's a basic test: Who was Alice Paul? Well, she was feisty. She was brilliant. Some might even say that Alice Stokes Paul (1885-1977), our cover girl, was the true founder of the women's movement. Yet, there are many to whom the name means nothing. Which is why Philadelphia's Taylor Williams is bringing her stirring portrayal of Paul, in authentic period costume, to the Mount Laurel Library this weekend. The event is sponsored by the Alice Paul Institute, which is headquartered at Paul's Mount Laurel family homestead, and is now a center for leadership development for girls and women.

After weeks of resistance, Medford has agreed to let Burlington County pay for upkeep of its Pinelands branch library this year. If accepted by the Board of Freeholders, the township's agreement would end for now a dispute over who will pay $30,000 in maintenance, utilities, and insurance at the town-owned, 6,000-square-foot building. But the township, which in January balked at maintaining the site, says it still believes the county should pay for the library's upkeep in years ahead.

Do the names Celilia Beaux or Violet Oakley ring a bell? How about Faith Ringgold, an artist renown for her painted quilt series and who used her art to portray the civil rights movement from a female perspective? If you want to know more, the Haverford Township Free Library will hosted a program A Room of Her Own: Women in American Art. Dressler Smith, of the Pennsylvania Academy of the fine Arts will lead a discussion on pioneering 19th century women artists. Smith will show how the political and cultural change in American history "both inspired and challenged women artisits.

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Colloquially, people call it the "Love III" because so many remember going there on a first date, getting engaged, or celebrating another momentous life occasion there. Dozens of kitchen and wait staff even met and married there. But soon, couples will have to seek the Library III - an odd landmark of a restaurant along the Black Horse Pike that used the same dark-brown paint on both the exterior and interior and hasn't changed even slightly since it opened 40 years ago - at a new location.

  It's hard to know where to begin with Gordon M. Marshall Jr. - the minute or the monumental, the centuries-old paper or the granite. From 1971 until 1993, he was assistant librarian at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Benjamin Franklin-founded repository of American history. Early on, he revived the exhibition program and designed such notable shows as "The Larder Invaded," a cook's tour of 300 years of local culinaria. In retirement, Mr. Marshall built a church.

TRENTON - Staffers at the public library in the state capital are rationing bathroom supplies after a growing wave of vandalism and theft. Signs outside the first-floor bathrooms direct patrons to the front desk, where they can get individual-size portions of toilet paper and other personal-hygiene items prepared by library staff. The policy was implemented after a series of incidents in recent months, said library director Kimberly Matthews. - AP

Burlington County Freeholder Leah Arter warned Medford officials Friday that the township would be responsible for upkeep of the Pinelands branch library after it rejected a maintenance agreement with the county. Arter called it "disheartening" that the Medford Township Council refused Tuesday to accept a special offer from the freeholders to underwrite $30,000 worth of insurance, utilities, and physical upkeep at the library in 2013. "By rejecting our offer," Arter told Mayor Frank Czekay in an e-mail, Medford "will continue to be subject to the prior agreement," which obligates the town to pay those costs.

The Cherry Hill Public Library has picked as its new director a librarian with a passion for community programming - and comic books. Laverne Mann, managing director of the Piscataway (N.J.) Library's Westergard branch, was named by the library's board of trustees at a special meeting last Thursday. She starts Feb. 25. "It was such a special opportunity," Mann, 41, of Hamilton Square, said Wednesday. In Cherry Hill, "there's a passion from the administration and the board for the public library.