This was the first library I visited when I embarked in November of 2018 on my retirement goal of visiting every public library branch in the Columbus metro region. It was only after I returned home that day that I even thought of the possibility of doing a blog about my visits—mainly because I’d never done one before and would have to learn from scratch. As a result that first blog was very brief and really didn’t do justice to the library. So I decided to return last week on Tuesday (8/31) and take more pictures for a new blogpost.
I drove down to the south side of Columbus just before lunch, so I stopped at a small gyro place on S. High St. a little south of the library—the Gyro City Grill. I got a very nice lamb gyro (my first one since March of 2020) with a side of fries, which I took out to eat in the car. (I’m still not eating indoors at restaurants because of COVID.)
I do really like the high ceiling atrium that extends the length of the library from the entrance at the south end of the building. The many clerestory windows bring in an abundance of natural light. The Circulation & Information Desk is about half way along this central space. I went up to introduce myself and received a wonderful welcome from a couple of the librarians when I explained my project and mentioned the South High Branch had been my very first library visit. They ended up taking a photo of me (below) and posting it on the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) Facebook Page.
As I often do, I headed to the children’s area first. It’s a colorful and inviting space immediately to the left upon entering the library. There are a half a dozen computers for younger children, lots of child-sized furniture, and shelves and bins filled with picture books. The puppet theater especially caught my eye because I really love puppets and puppet shows.
The picture book I picked out to read was The Proudest Blue by Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad. It’s the story of a young girl named Asiya who gets her first hijab and wears it to her first day back at school. This copy was also a Wonderbook, which is a built-in audio book. I love the advice Asiya remembers from her mother when some other children tease her about wearing her hijab: “Don’t carry around the hurtful words that others say. Drop them. They are not yours to keep. They belong only to those who said them.”
Farther along on the other side of the low bookshelves of picture books there’s an area for older children, with shelves of chapter books as well as more computer stations.
Next along this west side of the library is a large space for teens with shelves for Y/A books and even more computers. As in other CML branches, the walls are adorned with college banners.
Looking from the middle of the atrium toward the south entrance, a wall of shelves for new arrivals separates the children’s areas from the center atrium. To the east side of the atrium there are computer stations for adult library patrons. And looking north there is a comfortable reading area with shelves of periodicals and a wonderful view of the gardens outside.
It looked like I’d have my pick of comfortable chairs, so I headed off to do some browsing to see what I might find—first looking for a movie or two the digital media collection and then for a couple of books from my Amazon wish list.
After browsing the fictions shelves and the new arrivals, I settled in to read for about an hour in a chair by the north windows with a wonderful view the length of the library back toward the entrance as well as a view of the gardens.
I didn’t find any DVDs that interested me, but I did end up checking out two books: Louise Penny’s latest Chief Inspector Gamache mystery, The Madness of Crowds, and a new science fiction novel Waste Tide by Chinese author Chen Qiufan.
This second visit to the South High Branch made for a wonderful afternoon. I’m looking forward to more library visits to come, especially since CML will be opening new buildings this month: for the Karl Road Branch and for the Hilltop Branch.
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