I took some time this morning to visit the revamped Oxford Central Library (from what I can make out on the website, now called Oxford County Library). My overall impression was that they hadn’t managed to do that much improvement during the time it was out of action. I thought it had been completely rebuilt but the structure looks a lot like what I remember from before. Some of the subject areas have been moved around a bit and there is now a ‘makerspace’ where the music library used to be (music has moved to the upstairs section). I expected a bit more information about this space, which I was looking forward to trying, but perhaps they didn’t get a suitably skilled person who could afford to volunteer to run it.

However, there were some positives. There is new shelving, using the three spiral arms design that I think was already in use in the crime section in the foyer, and the arrangement yields lots of quiet niches for sitting down and browsing books. Above all, I’m just happy to see the wide range of books back out and available. I didn’t come home laden with too many books … but that is for a relatively large value of too many!