{"id":25635,"date":"2020-07-09T11:55:46","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T11:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=25635"},"modified":"2020-07-09T11:55:46","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T11:55:46","slug":"abingdon-library-to-re-open-but-not-as-a-social-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/?p=25635","title":{"rendered":"Abingdon Library to Re-open (but not as a social centre)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Abingdon
\nLibraries 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.<\/p>\n

There will be some changes to how the library will operate to make them Covid-safe:
\n* you may have to queue to enter
\n* social distancing measures will be in place
\n* they will collect your name and contact details on entry
\n* short visits will be encouraged – up to 30 minutes
\n* they will take card and online payments only (no cash)
\n* most soft seating and tables will be removed – so I suspect fewer computers
\n* newspapers and magazines will be removed
\n* face-to-face events won’t run until government advice allows.<\/p>\n

Looking at the Oxfordshire Library Catalogue<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

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 …<\/p>\n

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.’<\/em>… A group round a local history computer murmur and the one word I can hear is ‘Oxfordshire.’<\/em>… 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<\/strong> … 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.’<\/em>… There’s a ‘rurr jurr’<\/em> and then a flapping as the microfilm winds back into its spool … The librarian wheels the books through ‘Staff Only’<\/em>… Bob slings a bag over his shoulder, and says ‘Good Bye.’<\/em>… 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-library"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.abingdonblog.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}