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,
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.
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,
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,