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From pickle ball sets to kayaks; libraries are loaning out free access to fun

The Connecticut River.
Nancy Eve Cohen
/
NEPM
The Connecticut River.

It's not uncommon for public libraries in western Massachusetts to loan out things other than books, such as DVDs and museum passes, but the library in Sunderland, which is just a short walk to the Connecticut River, just started loaning out much bigger things.

Now, people with a CW Mars library card can sign out a single or tandem kayak for up to three day as long as they launch the boat in Sunderland and sign a liability form. Carts to move the kayaks, a place to lock them up, paddles and life vests are all provided.

Library Director Katherine Umstot said the idea is to expand what it means for a library to give people access to information.

"Information also includes the ability to to try new things and to experience things you may not be able to afford otherwise," she said.

Sunderland also loans out hotspot devices that give free access to the internet and binoculars. The Pittsfield library loans out a sewing machine, a drill, a metal detector and a pickleball set. Holyoke patrons can sign out kids' backpacks filled with games and puzzles.

Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.

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