04 June 2021

The Inside Of The Midland Library, Fourteen Months On

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This is a view of the Midland Branch that I was beginning to despair ever of seeing again, looking down the middle of the building as though we were going to find seats at the back and sit in for a few hours.

We didn't get to stay long, and it wasn't nearly enough, but it felt good. Staff dispersal wasn't complete, and we're happy to see a few familiar faces there. Some pieces of our heart have gone on to other branches, or chose to retire, but the pandemic has been a real society-quake, rattling things to the four corners. I guess we'll have to come to terms.

Just before Covid went full-tilt boogie, there was a re-arranging going on here which was scheduled to conclude just as the world went into lockdown. Largely, though, it appears to have been in the children's section; the shelves line the building in the same way, and the computer stations, though not yet in use, are in the same places. 

It took a little poking around to find books of my interest but not much. 

There were tables in the back area, where we usually sat, but they're spread out a little more and not in business yet for those of us who might want to linger long; areas of the interior are corded off. It all feels a work in progress still.

But if this is all possible, could a return to relative normality be so impossibly far off now? I'm certainly hoping it's so. 

More on this story as it develops.
 

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