I love to travel—to experience the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, traditions, and attitudes of someplace new.  I’ve been all over the USA, and in my lifetime I’ve been lucky enough to spend time in England, Italy, France, and a few other countries in Europe, but there’s always more I want to do.  I get the travel bug on a regular basis, but these days there are some downsides.  Money and time are tight; flying is a hassle; gas prices are going up again; it seems sometimes it’s easier to just stay put.

Fortunately I’ve found a much easier and cheaper way to experience another place, and that is to go there by way of a great book or DVD.  I love to find an author who makes me feel like I’ve been transported to some other locale, whether it’s a fast-paced thriller set in Brazil, a cozy mystery set in Pennsylvania, or a nonfiction work about Pompeii.  Many years ago when I moved to Maryland from the West Coast, one of the first books I read was James Michener’s Chesapeake.  As a newcomer to this state, it helped me understand the lay of the land and also the history of the area. More than two decades later I picked it up again, and found that it was still satisfying and informative.

In fact, I find that reading about historical events is a wonderful way to “time travel.”  There are lots of great historical fiction books, but my preference is nonfiction. One of my favorites is The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Not only does it provide keen insight into the mindset of the people in the years leading up to the American Revolution, but he also gives us glimpses into what daily life was really like in those days. Here’s one such passage:

“Our city [Philadelphia], tho’ laid out with a beautiful regularity,…had the disgrace of suffering those streets to remain long unpav’d, and in wet weather the wheels of heavy carriages plough’d them into a quagmire, so that it was difficult to cross them; and in dry weather the dust was offensive. I had liv’d near what was call’d the Jersey Market, and saw with pain the inhabitants wading in mud while purchasing their provisions.”

Other books may plop you down in the middle of a dust bowl storm, or lift you up to the top of a mountain peak in the Himalayas.  There’s no limit to the places you can go.

And what about other ways of traveling? Maybe you want to visit places that don’t exist anymore, or never existed?  Where else in the world or in your imagination do you want to go?

Now that we are well into the 21st century, have you considered what a 21st century public library is? We think about it all the time! We librarians (always a little geeky, I will admit) saw pretty early on that technology could help us operate libraries better and faster, and make accessing content easier for you. So, libraries have been in a change and innovation whirlwind for the last quarter of the last century as technology has boomed, and, so far, there is no sign of slowing down in the 21st century. Public libraries have always been about giving people—every person—access to information, knowledge, and even culture and recreation—so anyone can learn and grow throughout life. We are really a community education center for everyone. So we provide a space to learn, study, and meet, books to read and search, librarians to consult with as guides and educators, and programs and classes for children, parents, and adults. And now, providing Internet and Wi-Fi access, using web technology to provide amazing library services, often 24 hours a day—well its almost second nature to all of us, users and librarians alike.

We have retained the best of the traditional (and still vital) library services, and incorporated the most promising of the new technology based services. So, we still have thousands of books to check out (and we still love them!), but we have them in about 10 formats (hardbacks, large print, audio, paperback, of course), and now including electronic downloadable format that allows you to download the text of books and then upload them to a Sony Reader or Barnes & Noble Nook (and, at no charge, BTW). Another brand new innovation at your Cecil County Public Library—you can download audio books (books that are read to you) from our website right to your MP3 player or iPod. Then, you can listen in your car, on a plane, running, gardening, cleaning or where ever, also at no charge. Check out these services—click the Digital Library tab above, and look under eAudio Books and eBooks. And if you need some help getting started, just ask a librarian because we are here to help—it is who we are!

Sometimes, in the mind’s eye, we may still look and do exactly what we did 40 or 50 years ago. But I think the key thing to know about the 21st century public library is that it is indeed part of the 21st century, and still doing what it has always done best: creating opportunities to learn and grow and succeed for absolutely everyone in our community–just more powerfully (and more digitally) than ever!