Looking inside the former Jan Marie’s Flea Market on Main Street, one sees a few bookshelves with some books but nothing that looks like the inside of the Columbia-Marion County Public Library when it was open on Broad Street.
However, looks can be deceiving as the library is open and ready to assist.
Columbia Branch Manager Mona Swayze said it has been slow in the re-opening of the facility. In December 2019, the library received substantial damage when an EF-2 tornado hit Columbia. The roof was blown off and the inside of the building was flooded by the torrential rains that fell the same night. After several months of going back and forth, the library finally reopened to the public on June 1 at the temporary location on Main Street.
One of the many obstacles this branch of the South Mississippi Regional Library System has faced is COVID-19. When the pandemic started in Mississippi, it shut down the moving efforts to get the library to the current location. After being shut down completely for a couple of months, the library has slowly been working on getting everything set up. It was not until the end of May that phone and internet services were established at the temporary location.
Swayze said when the library was in the search for a temporary location, the library packed boxes to move into a smaller space of 2,000 square feet instead of the current location of 11,000 square feet; that is why the building still looks somewhat empty looking in. In addition, the focus was more on children’s books. However, she said they are slowly getting more shelves set up to continue to add more books.
The other two libraries in the South Mississippi Regional Library System are in Prentiss and Bassfield. They, along with the Columbia branch, are currently offering curbside service only. Beginning next Monday the two locations in Jeff Davis County will begin to allow people inside the buildings. No more than 10 people in each location at a time will be permitted. In addition, the two branches in Jeff Davis County will begin to operate under regular hours on Monday.
The hope is for the local branch to be open for patrons to come inside after the Fourth of July but an exact date has not been set. At the temporary location, no more than 15 people will be allowed in the building and the computers at that point will be allowed to be used. Swayze said there will be a one hour limit on the computers, and after each use it will be sanitized for the next person to use.
While it appears the reading selection is slim at the library, Swayze said looks can be deceiving.
“You can go online and look at our catalog and reserve a book. Once we receive it we will call you and let you know it is here,” she said.
The website is www.smrl.lib.ms.us. She said click on “catalogue” and a person can search for a book by title or author. The user id will be the patron’s library number on their card, and the password is the patron’s phone number associated with the card. The book drop at the Broad Street location is still available to return books. She said items returned are kept in quarantine for 48 hours before being cleaned and put back on the shelf. All books, before being added to the shelves, are first cleaned to prevent the spreading of the virus.
The Columbia branch will continue to operate under its current hours of Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. with curbside service. The summer reading program is still continuing with videos being added every Tuesday on the library’s Facebook page. The library also has packets that correspond with the summer reading program that can be picked up Monday through Friday.
Swayze said she is really excited to be back open again and looking forward to when the doors actually open to allow people inside.
It is estimated with the repairs needed to the main branch on Broad Street that it will be after the first of year before the library will be back in the main location.
