It is the last day, and I am ready to go home. Last night, we went out to dinner at a restaurant and were able to do a short meet-and-greet with Hilary Clinton. The islanders love her, and she is called "Aunty Hills" by the locals. Pictures of that to follow, as soon as I get back to the states.

A brief discussion of the library, as it relates to the Cook Islands. There are so many books that there is absolutely no shelf room. All donations are cataloged and added to the collection, no matter how old, out-dated, or tatty. There is no money to support this library. The money for the two paid staff members, all the books, utilities and supplies has to be generated by the library. They sell locally written Cook Island histories, bananas, shoe shine kits, purses, used books, cookies, coffee and tea, and they have admission fees to the attached Cook Island museum, for which they are also responsible. New books are rare. They are getting things now that Bismarck would have received new last year. Or the year before. There is one laptop computer that is used by staff members. Wireless is available, but Jean berates patrons loudly and vociferously if they try to use the wireless and are not paying members of the library. It does have a small membership fee for residents, and a large fee for visitors, partially refunded if they return all of their books.

It seems to be the gossip center of the island, and many people stop in every day to exchange local news with the staff. A woman they all knew died recently, and there was much lively discussion about her having chosen to "join Davey Jones' locker" rather than having a traditional funeral. Burial at sea is legal and rather common here. While there are a number of adult patrons who use the library on a regular basis, I only saw one or two children, and the staff report that they do not get very many young readers, though the children's collection is fairly large. Reading is not a priority here, and many houses have only the Bible and no other books. Most of the adult readers seem to be Kiwis or Aussies. I saw few island natives. Still, it does have an important place in the community and I have been invited to return and to do more projects. Before I was allowed to shelve books, I was questioned on my proficiency with the Dewey Decimal system. It appears that I have sufficient skill, since I was allowed to remove my shoes and shelve books one afternoon.