Deciding this morning to visit the Franklinton Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) gave me the perfect excuse to stop at Tommy’s Diner on W. Broad St. for a late breakfast. The first time I ate there was in early December when I visited the Hilltop Branch. Out of all the diners I’ve eaten at in five months exploring the areas libraries so far, Tommy’s is my favorite. It’s a classic, old school diner. and in several visits since since December I’ve especially enjoyed their “Big Breakfast,” their Franklinton Burger, and their peanut butter silk pie. Yummy!
The Franklinton Branch library is at the corner of Town St. & Dakota Ave., approximately 3 blocks west and two blocks south of Tommy’s. (The photo below is from a Google street view.)
After visiting several other CML branches, I felt the library design seemed a bit odd when I entered and found myself in a small area with a staircase and an elevator. The library itself is on the second floor. (Apparently, there’s a meeting room as well as a study room on the lower level, but I did not see them.) At the top of the stairs is an information display with shelves of books for sale. There are also restrooms and a glass doorway that leads to the library.
My immediate impression was that this library seemed rather small. And indeed, the librarian who welcomed me said she thought it was the smallest of the CML neighborhood branches. Small it may be, but the brightly lit computer area to the left was as busy or busier than any I’d seen in a library so far, with only one of the workstations not in use.
To the right just past the circulation desk there is a small teen area with table and chairs, some computers, and the shelves for teen fiction books.
Farther into the library and on the right is a large area for younger children. The stand in the center of the photo below displays pairs of books—a children’s picture book is paired with a nonfiction book on the same topic to provide further information when parents share the books with their children.
The books shelves in this area are nicely laid out to appeal to younger children.
The collection is small but fairly varied. After picking out a couple, I also looked on the teen fiction shelves, where I found the one below that I’d been searching for for several weeks. Since I’ve been falling way behind on the pile of to-be-read books I’d checked out over the past several weeks, I decided to limit myself to just the one book this week. (It’s a good thing that the library system automatically renews my books no matter which library they come from.)
After I picked out the book, I discovered that all of the various cushioned chairs in the library were occupied. So I headed to an empty table in the homework help area to read for a while.
From there I could look back the length of the library toward the glass entry doors. And on a shelf in front of me I spotted an intriguing children’s picture book about Columbus artist Aminah Robinson. It turned out to be an amazing book designed to introduce children to the artist’s life and work—with gorgeous foldout illustrations and murals as well as ideas for crafts and other activities to engage children.
After I returned Aminah’s World to the shelf, I read for another hour or so. Then it was time to check out my book and leave this nice little branch library. I really enjoyed my visit. But I found myself wishing that the CML system could invest in something more than this to serve the Franklinton neighborhood. (In my December blog entry about the Hilltop Branch I noted that only 2 out of the 23 CML branches are located in the southwest quadrant of the city of Columbus—west of the Scioto River and south of I-70.)
No comments:
Post a Comment