Libraries in Oxfordshire will re-open either on 13th July or 20th July. Abingdon Library will be among the first to re-open on the 13th.
There will be some changes to how the library will operate to make them Covid-safe:
* you may have to queue to enter
* social distancing measures will be in place
* they will collect your name and contact details on entry
* short visits will be encouraged – up to 30 minutes
* they will take card and online payments only (no cash)
* most soft seating and tables will be removed – so I suspect fewer computers
* newspapers and magazines will be removed
* face-to-face events won’t run until government advice allows.
Looking at the Oxfordshire Library Catalogue, I see my loans have been extended to the 3rd – 10th August. I could still do the Michael Thomas Italian course, but I probably won’t as the Italian holiday was cancelled.
The upper floor of the library also used to be a bit of a social centre – even a day centre at times. Here is an idle ten minutes from before the shutdown …
We all hear a phone ring and then after some low chatter I hear a voice from a soft chair promise, ‘I will call you back in a moment, Sue.’… A group round a local history computer murmur and the one word I can hear is ‘Oxfordshire.’… Bob F reads a 1970’s Abingdon Herald on microfilm… The librarian at the enquiry desk piles books, beeping each through… A young lady with a laptop twirls a plait of hair. With her pink coffee cup and sprawl of papers, she seems to be waiting for inspiration… I flick through the reference only copy of News from a Country Town … From July 1780 I read of a floral festival at the Crown and Thistle. It says, ‘Each person to prove on oath that his Blossoms are his own blowing.’… There’s a ‘rurr jurr’ and then a flapping as the microfilm winds back into its spool … The librarian wheels the books through ‘Staff Only’… Bob slings a bag over his shoulder, and says ‘Good Bye.’… The man in the low back chair is stretched out with a stick next to him. I am more worried about him calling Sue than he seems.
