MARBLEHEAD — For centuries, libraries were about books. In recent times, the library has been swept along by the electronic revolution, moving quickly from VHS tapes to DVDs, from Internet access to MP3 downloads.
With so many changes, the library is bound to have something to appeal to everyone, said Patricia Rogers, new director of the Abbot Public Library .
"We want to urge people who don't now see the library as having value to them to come in and discover that it does," she said.
For all the high-tech wonders libraries now offer, however, the institution began with the printed word. And yet, especially among the young, books seem to have lost their allure.
"Young kids do read," Rogers said. "It's the teens and tweens who think, 'Reading is not for me.'" She detects an actual bias against reading.
"I regret that reading and books have become somewhat viewed as medicinal," she said. In other words, reading's good for you even it occasionally seems tough to swallow.
For her part, Rogers is someone who collects books just for the pleasure of having them. These aren't necessarily rare or financially valuable books. They're books that catch her fancy for other reasons.
"I can remember buying a specific volume of Dylan Thomas' 'A Child's Christmas in Wales,'" she said. It was a modern product, not an investment, but wonderfully written, including "beautiful illustrations,"
Rogers is no missionary of the book — she likes the Internet, too. "But our charge is to help (young people) discover that books are not just good for them — they're fun."
Rogers comes to Marblehead, replacing the retiring Bonnie Strong, after four years directing the Osterville Free Library on Cape Cod. With degrees from Brown and Simmons, she worked for Harvard University's libraries for 12 years and was deputy director of the Corning Museum of Glass in New York state.
Rogers is cheered to have gallery space at the Abbot, giving her a chance to promote art as she did at Corning.
Already settled in Marble-head, she has two children attending the high school and middle school. Praising her new staff, Rogers pointed out that she'll be attacking a fundamental problem soon, overseeing maintenance including a paint job for the library's flaking exterior.
