The Old Worthington Library is the main library in the Worthington Libraries system. It’s located near the village green on High St. in the historic district of Old Worthington. The library was founded in 1803, and this fifth location for the library was opened in 1979. The photo above shows the north entrance. Before visiting I checked out the library website, which offers considerable detail about both the various library spaces and the wide range of services it offers. Because of COVID, some of the services are temporarily limited—such as meeting, study, and tutor rooms as well as the Homework Help Center.
When I arrived yesterday (6/30), I parked in the south parking lot and used the south entrance (photo below). To the right of this entrance there is a wall of pick-up lockers to get library materials outside of operating hours.
The lobby area connects the north and south entrances, and I immediately noticed some of the COVID changes, since the tables and chairs pictured in the the library website were missing. Instead there are shelves pushed into corners and a “corral” of wheeled bins for returned books. The banner shown below left dates from 2018, and the library’s string of ten straight 5-star ratings now extends to 12. To the west from the lobby are study rooms and a large meeting room (all closed due to COVID), rest rooms, and the administrative offices of the Worthington Libraries system. The Friend’s of the Library book sale is in operation here in the lobby, and I couldn’t resist purchasing a South African mystery by a favorite author.
To the east from the lobby is a long hallway with brick arches. Signs pasted on the carpet remind patrons to maintain social distance, while shelves along the hallway at empty presumably to prevent browsers from blocking the passage way. The reserve shelves are off to one side as is the Homework Help Center (temporarily closed).
Just past the stairway down to the library’s lower level, the space opens up to a very large room. On the left a bright yellow wall drew my attention with its sign announcing the Teen Area. Part of the library’s extensive audio/video collection of DVDs & CDs is shown in the foreground of the picture. The Teen Area looks as if it would be a comfortable gathering space (it is reserved for teens in 7th through 12 grade from 3-6 pm, Monday through Friday during the school year), but all the furniture had been pushed to the outside wall or into the study room that is reserved for teens. I was beginning to find that the library’s efforts to limit seating, especially any soft, comfortable seating, extended throughout the building. There are shelves for graphic novels along one wall and for teen/YA books along another. While browsing, I was pleased to locate a couple of books in a fantasy series that I’d had on my search list for more than a year.
I especially enjoy exploring the children’s area of libraries, so I headed back in the direction of the lobby to the inviting entrance to the Brookingham Forest—the library’s fanciful name for the children’s department. I couldn’t resist taking closeups of some of the forest's inhabitants, including Jellybean the pegasus. There’s a paw-print path on the floor to see other residents of the forest. (As with other children’s library areas during COVID, the toys and other playthings have been put away.)
To one side is what looked an especially inviting space for kids’ story time with whimsical creatures on the walls. However it was roped off and closed for COVID. (I’m just going to have to make a return visit.) To one side is a wall of Launchpad tablets pre-loaded with apps for letters, numbers, creativity, life skills, etc., and a pile of Discovery and Welcome to Reading packs and kits.
My favorite part of children’s areas in libraries is exploring the children’s picture books section, seeing what’s on display and browsing the books on the shelves. I always check out whatever books I can find by Mo Willems, but it’s been several visits since I've come across one I hadn’t already read. So after re-reading Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, I went searching for what other interesting books I might find.
My first find was Your Alien Returns by Tammi Sauer, which is apparently a sequel to Your Alien, where a cute little alien appears to a little boy on earth. But in this book, it’s the human boy’s turn to visit the extraterrestrial’s home planet, where he has fun yet begins to feel like an outsider. My favorite image of the boy shows him standing surrounded by little aliens with the text saying, “Seeing all of them will make you feel a little alienated.”
My other find was a wonderful story, The Grudge Keeper by Mara Rockliff, about the town of Bonnyripple where no one ever kept a grudge. Why? Because Everyone files away all their tiffs and huffs and squabbles and snits with Cornelius, the grudge keeper, who stores them away in his house. The wordplay is witty and fun, especially the synonyms for grudge. (I knew the author wasn’t talking down to children when she used the word “imbroglio.” Ok, all you readers, how many of you can define “imbroglio” without looking it up. I couldn’t.) When a huge wind comes up and Cornelius’ house is destroyed, the grudges are all mixed up. “Squibbles were scrambled with quibbles. Low blows rested high up in the pile. High dudgeon had drifted down low. And left-handed compliments had landed on the right side.” Go find the book and read it for yourself to find out how the townspeople deal with the mess.
Eventually it was time to continue exploring the rest of the library, so I headed out toward the tunnel through the tree, but not before a short detour to see the Tween Room (where I had a wonderful conversation with one of the librarians) and then checked out the wall of audio/visual materials for children.
The fiction and non-fiction stacks are on the lower level, so I headed downstairs past large windows that looked out on a small outdoor amphitheater. The non-fiction section is located in a very large room to the east along with the computer stations for adults. A number of group study rooms are off this room (all closed) along with the Worthington Room, which is devoted to resources about the history, government, organizations, and citizens of the Worthington area. As in other areas, most of the chairs had been pushed together and roped off.
From there I headed through the brick arch to the west of the stairway so I could spend some time searching the fiction shelves for titles on my want list.
Fifteen or twenty minutes later I had located six or seven possibles, and out of those I managed to pick three to borrow. (My to-be-read pile of library books at home is getting out of hand.) So with an armload of books I headed upstairs to the large reading room, hoping to find a chair where I could sit down and examine all my finds and spend some time reading my current book book.
The large open room has four large, arched windows to the east. The shelves for large-print books are at the far end to the left. The righthand wall is lined with shelves for new arrivals and there is a cozy corner with a fireplace. The room looks so very open largely because most of the furniture is pushed together and piled up in one place. (With all the yellow tape I'd seen, I couldn’t help but wonder if I'd wandered into some kind of a crime scene.)
I was relieved to put my load books down on a table by one of the windows and then finally sit down to do some reading. I’d been on my feet for the entire visit so far, and my bad knee had started complaining. Come winter I’d love to sit in one of the comfortable easy chairs in the fireplace area. I’ve included a photo from the library’s website to show the fireplace, because my photo with no furniture around just doesn’t do it justice. (There’s a Google street-view walk through tour of the library on Google Maps if you want to compare my photos to the more normal layout and decor of the library.) I will definitely have to revisit this library when things get back to normal—whenever that might be. The librarians said they would be opening things up a bit more after July 6.
My finds on this library visit included: Deon Meyer’s South African mystery Icarus, which I purchased for $2; a DVD set of the Season One of the BBC TV series Dalziel & Pascoe, which is based on Reginald Hill’s mystery novels; books #2 & #3 of Tracy Chee’s Reader trilogy, The Speaker and The Storyteller; and two mystery novels, Katrine Engberg’s The Tenant and Louse Penny’s How the Light Gets In.
While I was exploring the library, three different librarians told me I should be sure to see the sculpture out in front of the library on High St. So after I after leaving by the south entrance to put my books in my car, I proceeded counterclockwise around the building. The first photo below is of the exterior of the east wall of the main reading room with its four arched windows. The sculpture is in a garden with native plants, some natural pathways, and bench seating. The sculpture is called Reading with Friends. It was commissioned in 2017 from artist Mike Tizzano who created it on-site in the lobby. Its design was based on characters from a summer reading program, which featured Ricky the raccoon, Winston the owl, and Asparagus the fox. The sculpture was unveiled to the public in 2018.
By the time I left the library it felt a bit too late to stop for lunch, so I dropped in on a friend who has an office almost directly across High St., and then I stopped at the nearby Dairy Queen for a Reese’s peanut butter cup blizzard. Eating ice cream and reading at one of the tables out front was a fine ending to a wonderful library visit.
[Just a note: Today's Columbus Dispatch contained a story about the efforts of the Worthington library staff to unionize. At this point, 70% of the Worthington staff members have signed and turned in union cards to the State Employees Relations Board. The library board trustees voted not to voluntarily recognize the union, so the matter will now proceed to a private vote of the library staff. If the nearly 180 employees of the Worthington Libraries vote to form a union, they will be the first library to unionize in Ohio. Nationwide, about 25% of librarians are union members. I wish the library staff well in their efforts.]
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