2 President’s Message e are certainly busy at RAPS as the New Year begins. Several initiatives have been added to those we developed in the past year: we are working on a budget, we are developing our scholarship, we have a new task force working on membership issues, and we are beginning to plan for hosting a regional meeting of university retirement associations. And, in January, we had an extra program for RAPS members. The first program of 2012, a tour of the library, was fascinating—not only because of the changed and enhanced physical spaces that we were shown, but because of the new philosophy of the library. No longer is it populated only by shelves of books, through which the lonely scholar is browsing. Now it is a vibrant center of technology, specially designed for students working together but a wonderful resource for all library patrons. Books are, of course, still available—vast quantities of them in libraries scattered through the region—all discoverable on Internet systems. The change in availability of information brought by the new technologies is astounding. And the tour made me think about the nature of learning and thinking—what parts of it are best accomplished in interaction with others, and what parts demand solitary study and reflection. As I write this, our second program, Governor Barbara Roberts discussing her latest book, has not yet taken place. Having read her book, Up the Capitol Steps, I am inclined to think that this program is going to be about the changes that can happen when energized groups work together for a cause. About the doing that comes after the learning and thinking. I’m looking forward to the program. Among the changes, of course, are the career possibilities that opened to women during Governor Roberts’s lifetime (and ours as well). What interesting times we live in! --Joan Shireman University archivist Cris Paschild, third from left, gives RAPS members a glimpse into the past as she describes the University’s holdings of rare and historic documents. Paschild’s presentation was one element of the Jan. 19 RAPS program on the Branford P. Millar Library. Next to her (holding folder) is Michael Bowman, engineering librarian, who served as guide, describing new technologies and updating RAPS members on services available to them as PSU retirees. Photo by Larry Sawyer. W
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