The Library Space

        The downtown main branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library has been showing a photographic exhibit on redlining in Columbus, redlining, or racial zoning, being the real estate practice in this country of marking off neighborhoods where people of color lived and designating them as low value areas not worth the financial investment of a mortgage loan.

       Last Tuesday Tom and I decided  to see go the library exhibit.  
​      Now, the main branch of the Columbus library underwent a major renovation a few years ago, and though at the front entrance one can still find a vestige of the building's beautiful original interior design,

...upon entering the library proper one steps into a vast, bright, modern space with an attractive open-area design.

     As we traversed the library space on our way back to the redlining exhibit, we passed another quite engaging exhibit on human migration,

...as well as the beautiful staircase mural painted by Columbus folk artist artist Aminah Robinson.

     We also passed the library bookstore,

...the café,

...and lots of places to sit,

...before we arrived at our destination, the redlining exhibit.

       And it was all good, the exhibits, the shops, the nice public spaces;  but it hit me: where are the books in this library?
       Not that there were no books at all; there was one long row of shelves that held a number of copies of a couple of different books. 

...and I did catch sight of a display in one of the sitting areas,

...and there were some books hanging on a wall.

    But the most books were to be found on the shelves of the book store, which was the only area that, to me, looked like a library. 

      All the books on the store shelves were used library editions for sale for a dollar or so.
      I asked the cashier where all the books were in this library. 
      "The books are on the second and third floors," she said. "And there's the children's library to the left of the entrance."
       I knew about the children's library. Last summer I took my granddaughters there, and they had a fine time playing with the baby chicks and ducks from the hatchery that had been set up in the children's library,

...also looking at the Lego display,   

...and even looking at some books.

      So I headed, instead, up the staircase to the second floor, where there were shelves of books to be found,

...amidst the space.

      There were also some bookshelves spread out around the third floor,

       Wow, said I to myself while taking in the impressive view from the third floor of the second floor,

...there's just not a whole lot of books in this library.
    But after giving it a moment's thought, I decided that this state of affairs wasn't necessarily bad, but just a sign of the times. After all, just because people aren't reading print books doesn't mean they're not reading. It likely means, rather, that they're reading on their Kindles and Nooks or listening to their Audiobooks. And if the Columbus main branch library is no longer the repository for oodles of tomes that it once was, it's still a beautiful community space where people can come to read or work on their devices, or for any number of other beneficial reasons,

...and have a snack or a drink while they're at it.

      But it's sure not your mother's library.