Cape Cod Vacation

The wind was howling on Cape Cod, rain was pouring down, and a banging kitchen shutter was making a terrible racket. We were afraid our visit to our friends’ beach rental cabin would be a disaster, even though we did bring an umbrella. Our first visit to a beach was so cold and windy we nearly blew away. The lifeguards were huddled in a car playing cards.
But the weather improved and our “Cape” experience turned into a memorable one.

Traveling is the theme of our library’s Summer Adult Reading Program and it seemed only right that we check out some parts of the country outside of our own. On one of the rainy days I couldn’t resist dropping in to the local library in Truro. It was well stocked with new books and lots of local art on the walls. They had a Summer Reading Program too, also with a travel theme.

The library is part of a group called the Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing (CLAMS). Much like our library system the folks in the far reaches of the Cape share books with other libraries located in larger cities. And it has Wi-fi.

With the improved weather the next day we rented bicycles and got to experience the smooth, well-maintained bike trail that runs all the way down the Cape.

A Scrabble game I was playing with my friend Ann was close near the end. I tried the word “Jule” in the corner with a triple word score. Ann looked at my word (she was planning to use the same triple word) and said “Yes, it’s a word” and I got a nice 32 points.

A few minutes later our daughter walked by our board game and commented, “Didn’t you mean ‘Joule’ the unit of energy of one newton force moving one meter?” The physics student was right, of course and Ann moaned that she lost the game on a “cheating word.”

Plane, taxi, ferry, car, bike, ferry, commuter train, subway, Amtrak, bus and back on the plane. Nearly every mode of transportation possible. Not bad for one week. We also managed to eat oysters, halibut, scallops and lobster during our short visit.

ALA in 1876

By John Grimm

In 1876, at our nation’s Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia, 90 men and 13 women responded to a call for a "Convention of Librarians." At the end of the meeting these 103 librarians from all around the country signed the register that was passed around to become charter members of the American Library Association.
ALA has been a friend and counselor to librarians of all kinds for these 134 years and it is important to all of us in the profession to thank the association for its tireless work on behalf of libraries and librarians.
A new president has just been installed. Roberta Stevens has a stellar resume both in academia and government. She accepted the gavel with these words:
“I am honored to be ALA’s president,” said Stevens. “At a time when libraries are encountering a perfect storm of increased usage and decreased support, I will focus on making broadly known the vital services we provide to millions of Americans each day.”
We welcome those words in Highland as we face our own budget difficulties. It’s not surprising to most of you who know our library that job seekers, career changers, and the unemployed have been coming to the Highland Library in record numbers. We hope to provide the same “vital service” to our patrons that we always have.
Stevens also pledged to “do my utmost to ensure that our libraries — the envy of the world — are both prepared for, as well as preparing others for, the challenges of the 21st century.” We in this library system are preparing to take on these challenges by adding more books and training our staff to reach out to library users who require more job skills.
The ALA motto might sound like it was written in 2010 but it actually came out of that first meeting in 1876: “The best reading, for the largest number, at the least cost.”