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Day 26: Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library - This one's for sharing #30days3olibraries

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"This one's for sharing," a mum tells her son and daughter.They sit side by side, leafing through the book in front of them. Taking turns to turn the pages.Their dad's gone to the adult library to look for a novel.Their mum's checking books out on the self service machine.Their grandparents sit quietly beside them.There's the hum of play, noise and chatter from the children's library next door. It's sealed from where they are sitting by a curved wooden wall, with large porthole-like windows.IMG_1090.JPGMoving further from them still, the space expands into an echoey cathedral-like space with a glass, vaulted ceiling.IMG_1082But the children are entranced by the pages.Their family surrounds them, and they read on.IMG_1089.JPG 

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Day 23: Bethnal Green Library - Here's where you park your bikes #30days30libraries

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Bethnal Green Library is insulated from the busy roads surrounding it thanks to its location on the outskirts of the Bethnal Green gardens.It gives it a little of a stately feel.IMG_1030.JPGIMG_1037.JPGTwo children riding puffed-up, plastic bikes were ahead of me, with their mother, and were welcomed into the library by one of staff.At first, I thought he was going to ask them to take the bikes outside but in the next moment, he was showing them where the 'parking spaces' were (in front of the information desk) and so they didn't get a ticket.Then he began passing them books out of the children's library.IMG_1034.JPGThe two children ran around in wild abandonment. The happiness of the librarian's welcome reflected back in their toothy, gaping smiles.I had to be the annoying person to ask him where I could work on a laptop and what the wifi password was but he broke off from the children to tell me where to go, what the magic word was.But before I'd turned away, he had already started reading to them.  

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