Enriching lives and…read moreeducating children Enriching lives and educating children is one what biography states the purpose of the Eastham Library is. Definitely a pretty accurate description, this is a library that does a lot of things and manages to look really nice doing it. The first library in Eastham was found back in 1878 and like most libraries back then the books were just stuck in the back of the general store. By 1897 the present building was constructed and has served ever since. The present Eastham Library is a small but quaint looking building that looks like it belongs on Cape Cod and blends in very well with it's surroundings. It even has a little model of the real library in the front that would make a nice doghouse for one of the local curs. The library is actually much larger than it seems from the outside and holds 45,000 items. Besides the usually books. magazines, videos, music, computers and puzzles the library also has some great articles on local history, some artifacts and displays and a great genealogy department. A very friendly and accommodating place that attracts, enriches, educates and welcomes visitors from all of New England.

My sanctuary! The kids room is absolutely adorable and the free wifi is so necessary! When I need a…read morebreak from the beach (I know, tough life!) this is where I go for a quick visit, except Mondays, it's not open! Music, DVD, books - all neatly displayed!

Sarah and Mary…read more Way back in about 1850 two young girls named Sarah and Mary decided that their little town of Brewster needed a library and instead of just whining and complaining they did something about it. They got together some other girls and started working various odd jobs to get money together for the library. The girls bought, borrowed and got people to donate books and in the early part of 1853 "The Girls' Library" was opened in a bookcase of a local house. A membership fee of one dollar was charged to take books out and the little library thrived and grew. Finally in 1868 a real library was built and an addition was quickly added in 1877 to accommodate the growing collection of books. In 1879 the name was officially changed to "The Brewster Ladies' Library". In spite of the name members of the opposite sex were also allowed in the library. Other additions were added in 1977 and 1997 and were carefully planned to be in the same cool colors and style of the original. The library today is stunning, beautiful, fascinating and very, very cool. Just so many great old photos and things to look at. It's easy to lose track of time in a place like this. A very nice and knowledgeable volunteer gave us a wonderful tour of the library and filled us with more facts, figures and history that I could possibly remember. An amazing library that has grown a whole lot over the decades but in a way hasn't changed one bit. An absolutely wonderful testimony to a dream that two young girls named Sarah and Mary had so many, many years ago.

I love this library! Never in my life did I think those words would ever leave my mouth! The kids…read moresection in particular is unstoppable. I feel like the kids have more books than the rest of the library itself! I bring my niece here every Thursday and literally spend 2-3 hrs putzing around. They always have a table set up with some sort of craft du jour for the tykes and tons of toys, puzzles, games, etc to keep them buzzing for hours. Love it!! The staff are super friendly and smiley. No crotchety old women here. Well I mean older women...yes, crotchety...no. And a major plus, the kids part is separate from the rest of the library, sooo...no one shushing the kids or giving us adults the hairy eyeball! Again, love it!! The rest of the library is pretty standard. Computer room, young adult area, massive amounts of adult lit., reading area, etc. It's worth the trip for sure. Definitely the coolest library in the area. Did I really just say that?! Oh and disregard the "Ladies" part, not sure where the name came from. Men are more than welcome!

Slate wood and…read moremarble The Eldredge Public Library was opened in 1896 and was constructed by the architect, Albion Marble. It's looking a bit scruffy now on the outside but when it was new it must have been stunning indeed. The lovely old building was built in Romanesque Revival style and has a slate roof, cool marble floors and amazing woodworking all through the interior. It had an addition on the back of the building in 1968 and other work completed in the early 1990s. The library has all kinds of cool art, a grandfather clock, antique furniture and even a spiral staircase that unfortunately isn't in use anymore. Typical with many libraries in the late 19th century there is a lot of strange little corners and nooks to explore that aren't particularly practical but certainly are fun. The library is more than just a pretty face, it now functions as a modern 21st century library with great wifi, a community room, plenty of audio and visual material and friendly and helpful librarians. A cool old library that manages to combine the practical new with the aesthetical old.

A beautiful building, well kept, well stocked, and organized. Lots of activities going on and good…read morehours as well. And I was there in the middle of winter! Great wifi. Even when they were closed, I would bring my laptop and just park in front (when I was without internet for a couple weeks). My only comment would be that the staff is a little laissez faire with noise control. There were a lot of loud kids, people crunching on food in the computer room, people playing music on their cells while they browsed, etc.

I found the Wellfleet public library to be a rather pleasant place. They have great skylights and a…read morefriendly staff. Some nice places to read and it wasn't too crowded when I went. They had an excellent pile of puzzles. Furthermore, they displayed great wall art all around the library by different artists. My favorite was this rug with fishing boats. The Wellfleet Public Library is part of the CLAMS system, which, if you aren't already, I highly recommend you join!

A library with a…read more porch Wellfleet is a pleasant little town on Cape Cod. It's typical of many Cape Cod towns with beautiful beaches, great dunes, open ocean and a unique charm. So it's quite appropriate that the town has a beautiful and unique library. The library is actually quite new and the books weren't moved into the building until 1989. Before that the official Wellfleet Library took a circuitous route that took them into several different locations around town. Seemed the library was always jumping around. The first library started in 1893 when the books were just sort of piled in the back of the First Congregational Church. Over the years the library took up residence in a bank, dry good stores, town hall and finally an old curtain factory. The poor books certainly had to move around a lot over the years but finally have found a permanent home. The present library is a wonderful place. The first thing that catches the eye is the huge porch. A great place to sit outside and read, talk to friends or just relax. The inside has over 10,000 square feet and separates into several rooms which makes it a convenient place to hold meetings, events and displays. Of course the library has all the usually amenities of a modern library and helpful and extremely pleasant and friendly librarians but it's the cool, rustic and unique charm and great porch that makes this library special. It took a century to find it's permanent home but I suspect that the library is going to be in this spot for a long, long time.

Love the Dennis Public Library! They have so much to look at and see! They offer events and are…read morevery organized. If they don't have it - you can order it and they work through the CLAMs system.

Awesome small town library with study areas and all the necessities you'd need! Stopped by this…read morelibrary while in town and was throughly impressed with what it had to offer. The library is "newer" compared to some of the others in the surrounding towns and has ample study space, many computers, and a pretty decent collection of books and movies!

For a small resort island, I love that they their own public library and it's larger than you'd…read moreexpect. It doubles as a cultural center and a mini museum. Located right in the middle of everything in the downtown district, this is a site not to be missed! Beautiful exterior architecture and a grand staircase. Two floors, with a range of books, a corner for free books for the taking, restrooms in the lower level, and friendly staff. They have events year round including lectures and special exhibits. I wish I had more time to explore!

The Atheneum is a must visit. It's great for kids and adults…read more First, wander around the outside grounds. Check online for any programming, too; we stumbled upon a really great outdoor show for young kids with music and dancing - very memorable and fun. We got our kid's first library card here, even as a non-local. The kid book section is right in front with a great selection. There's also a kid's bathroom. There are extra bathrooms for adults in the basement, but they took forever.

Thieves and barbers…read more The Brooks Free Library opened in 1881 and was part of a block of buildings funded by Henry C. Brooks. The library was just one of many rooms in the block of buildings that also included dress makers, attorneys, dry goods, apartments and even a barber. The library was small back then but kept growing and eventually assimilated the entire block. It kept growing and sucked in some surrounding buildings too. The library today is pleasantly bizarre and looks like it was designed by some mad scientist. Just sort of rambles on in all directions but the incongruity just adds to it's uniqueness and coolness. Inside it has all the stuff a library should have, including a great genealogy and local history room, but it just might take longer to find one particular thing until you get use to the place. Lots of cool architecture and art works all over the place. A whole bunch of statues by the 19th century artist, John Rogers are scattered around. At one time there were more but in 1976 some thieving jackals broke into the library and stole some. In spite of an investigation by the FBI the unique statues were never seen again. The library has friendly and helpful librarians and a feel of someone's old and elegant home. A very cool place to sit and relax, read a book, do some research or just take in all the weird coolness and history.

This is a wonderful town library full of a diverse book selection and helpful and happy staff…read more Thank you Harwich!!!

I love this library. What a wonderful community resource. Good collection. Calming space. And the…read morelibrarians are the best!

A wonderful new…read morelibrary I tend to like the old, quaint and historical libraries because most of the new ones tend to be functional and useful boxes built by the lowest bidder. Most certainly do what they were designed to do but have a boring and pedestrian atmosphere. Places to work and not relax. The new Truro Library, built in 1999, shows that it is possible to build a new library with plenty of charm, character and originality. The library holds about 25,000 items, which isn't really a lot, but has many cool open spaces to sit and stretch out and a great soaring ceiling that makes the entire library seem much larger than it is. The librarians were very friendly and explained how the first library was built way back in 1894 and for a long time the town of Truro had two very small libraries. Finally in 1999 the books and materials from the two tiny libraries were combined into this one beautiful facility. Cool local artwork decorates some of the walls and a fine community room is located downstairs. It's nice to see that attractive new libraries are still being built. Perhaps not as opulent and extravagant as some of the incredible structures that were completed at the turn of the century, but still distinctive and captivating enough to be appreciated for a long time to come.

We bought a Christmas ornament in one of the little artist shacks near the marina and one of the…read moreartists told us to go and check out the library in town. We took his advice and walked there. He was right. It was absolutely stunning. There is a huge sailboat inside the library covering almost all of the inside, surrounded by books. It is absolutely beautiful.

Very beautiful library. Go up to the second floor to see the 1/2 size replica boat that was built…read moreinside the library. This floor has the teen/kids section and it's a great spot. There's a toy/play area, crafting spot, veggies growing in a hydroponic tube, etc. This is a good place to let your kids relax and play a little and find some new books. Basement has public bathrooms (which is so nice after walking around all day). This floor also has a small room of books for sales. Lots of great finds if you are looking for vacation reading. Very nice library with multiple quiet areas of that is what you want. Also a reading room for Cape Cod books / information.

History and…read moreconvenience The very first idea for a library in the town of Falmouth was back in 1792. At first the books were stored where ever there was room and eventually ended up in the town hall. The library finally got a permanent home in 1901. As the town grew the need for a larger library also become obvious. So in 1966 an addition was completed. And again in 1978 another addition was added. And finally in 2008 major renovations took place and now the library is a whole lot larger than the original one but still has the charm of the very first building. The library is beautiful, both inside and out and the additions and renovations blend in extremely well with the original concept so it can be difficult to see exactly where the addtions were added. The seal of the town of Falmouth is even embedded on a dome in the ceiling. The library has lots of very comfy place to sit or study as well as a great local history room, kids department and community room. A lovely and very useful library that has grown along with the town.

We went to this library a lot when our kids were little. They loved it and we loved it. We had not…read morebeen back for a while but wanted to see how it had fared in recent years. It's a small town library that's really crowded during summer tourist season and never used to be crowded at all in the off season when we were often in town. It was jam packed on a cool drizzly summer day. It still has a large lower level children's section. And it is still the place to be with wonderful creative updates. The book areas are nicely delineated by age groups and book styles and there are lots of inspiring posters even on office and closet doors. A creative playhouse is at one end. A local garden having a butterfly release on Saturday was nicely featured with all the details of the event and displayed many correlated books. The librarians were very helpful and parents circulated through the areas with their kids. There did seem to be lots of locals socializing with each other but also some obvious tourists enjoying the facility. The building still has lots of historic charm but there are updates to some areas as well as the exterior. There appeared to be an addition since we were last here and we heard maybe yet another in the near future. Parking was a real problem this week but I would guess they can handle the off season/school year just fine.