Blue Ridge Country May/June 2023 - 16

COUNTRY ROADS
100-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
Low-Tech Library Celebrates
The Blowing Rock, North Carolina, library's card catalogue is intact.
he North Carolina town of Blowing Rock celebrates
a special birthday this spring: the centennial of the
Blowing Rock Community Library, with celebratory
events beginning May 25 and continuing through the
summer.
The Blowing
Rock Library
is in many
ways a
museum of
libraries past
as well as a
functioning
library.
This beloved library, housed since 1948 in a handsome
building of gray stone, has operated continuously
for 100 years, all while remaining delightfully stuck in
the past. That's how the patrons and the volunteer staff
like it, according to Anna Keber, the library manager and
its only paid employee.
" We're tech-phobic, " she laughs. " Nothing is digitized.
No website, no e-books, no barcodes, no electronic
gun beeping at checkout, no computers. It's really like
stepping back into the 1960s.
" There are generations that have never seen a card
catalogue, " Keber continues.
" We have people
who bring their kids
and grandkids in to see
ours. "
Despite the low-tech
approach, the Blowing
Rock Community Library
holds some 10,000
volumes for adults and
another 3,000 to 4,000
titles for children.
BLOWING ROCK LIBRARY
T
While the library as an institution began in 1923,
the current home reflects the riches of the mountains
all around: locally milled knotty pine for the soaring interior
walls, hand-wrought iron fixtures for doors and
cabinets, and that stone ... quarried long ago from the
flanks of nearby Grandfather Mountain. When an annex
was built in 1950 the builders were able to match
the materials exactly.
According to one account, the library grew from
the efforts of well-to-do summer residents of the town,
which drew lowlanders for the cool air in the years before
air conditioning. Funding these days comes primarily
from the people who use and love the library. No federal
or state funds are involved. There's a perpetual book
sale in the large community room in back (although the
sign out front teases " Book Sale Today " ), where visitors
can browse a huge selection of gently used books, art
prints, CDs and DVDs.
Even the whimsical bronze statue out front, called
" Jessie " for a little girl portrayed as she reads a book, was
a donation. Cast by artist Cantey T. Kelleher, the statue
honors Blowing Rock's legendary librarian, Grace Carr,
and was donated by the Tomlinson family.
Blowing Rock Community Library welcomes visitors
Monday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., May
through mid-October; and during the same hours Mondays,
Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays in winter.
1022 Main Street; 828-295-7000. -NAN K. CHASE
BIG DIIPPER
Skywatch May & June: What Lies Before You
M
+
Zenith
Arcturus
(Boötes)
Realm of the
Galaxies
Denebola
(Leo)
ay and June skies bring a period of
relative celestial calm. Gone are the
dazzling stars of winter and early spring, and
yet to come is summer's glowing band of the
Milky Way.
Spica
(Virgo)
CORVUS
South
Looking South on a clear, moonless evening
at 11:00 in May and 10:00 in June.
Contemplate the blackness overhead.
What do you see, what do you feel?
The brightest star in the sky this time of
year is Arcturus which is easily identified by
continuing the curve of the Big Dipper's
handle. That curves lands on 37 light-year
distant Arcturus. Continue the curve and
Spica, another bright star, is found. To the
west of Arcturus lies Denebola, the dimmest
of these three stars. Within this region not
many stars pop out to the unaided eye,
but something else lurks always unseen to
casual stargazers. Past the few stars spotted,
which all lie a few tens to a few hundred
light-years from our little world, hides a
large cluster of galaxies at a distance between
10 and 70 million light-years. This is
the " Realm of the Galaxies " studied extensively
by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Imagine what you can't see, but know
what lies above you. Beyond the few seeable
stars lie the unseeable thousands of
galaxies, each containing hundreds of billion
of stars. Now, what do you feel?
-JOHN GOSS
16 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
West
East
http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
Blue Ridge Country May/June 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country May/June 2023
