Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Museums and libraries welcome visitors again
Culture services return with restrictions in place
Summerlee museum and Coatbridge library have now reopened as operators Culture NL begin to reinstate facilities following more than five months of coronavirus closures.
The town’s library in the Buchanan Centre on Main Street opened on Monday for the first time since March – with readers being asked to “browse with your eyes and not your hands” as they choose books.
Industrial heritage attraction Summerlee reopened last Wednesday for visitors booking a timed two-hour visit. Its mine tours, tram and interactive exhibitions remain closed.
Face masks are mandatory at both sites, along with hand sanitising, controlled numbers of visitors and 2m social distancing, with tables and chairs having been removed from both to free up vital space.
Entry to Summerlee remains free, but visitors must pre-book to attend, from either 10am to 12 noon or 1pm to 3pm from Wednesdays to Sundays.
Mine tours will remain closed, at least until later in the year, as they cannot “accommodate social distancing” and the popular tramway is currently closed for essential work ahead of opening later this month, with new regulations including a requirement for passengers to wear face coverings.
Officials add: “You’ll need to end your journey after a one-way trip and rejoin later; this allows the driver to clean between journeys and ensure everyone’s safety.”
Culture NL said: “The museum will be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We hope to gradually increase our hours but want to make sure we keep staff and visitors safe while we get used to the new ways of working.
“We’ve implemented a number of changes to the museum and gallery experience – interactive exhibits will remain closed to uphold social distancing measures and limit visitors’ contact with hard or shared surfaces.
“The number of visitors will be limited to ensure everyone has a safe and enjoyable day; our team may temporarily restrict access to, or the movement of, visitors around buildings and exhibitions.”
Meanwhile, returned items will be quarantined for three days before going back on the shelves at Coatbridge library, which reopened on Monday and is now operating from 10am to 4pm on weekdays.
Culture NL say of its other 17 libraries including Airdrie, Chapelhall, Chr yston and Moodiesburn: “We will announce when further libraries are opening in due course. We are opening our libraries on a phased basis to ensure they are as safe as possible for our customers and staff.”
Readers returning to Coatbridge were told: “We would encourage you to browse more with your eyes in order to avoid coming into physical contact with too many items.
“With limited capacity, we would ask that customers consider others and perhaps limit their time when browsing for books, and computer access is limited to 30 minutes per session.”
Toilets and vending facilities will remain closed, while library users will need to provide Test and Protect contact details and use hand sanitiser on entry and exit.
Community activities such as book groups and children’s Bookbug sessions remain suspended, as are the book request system, room hire and newspaper provision.
Officials say: “Due to Covid restrictions on social gatherings, no group activities will take place in our libraries for the foreseeable future.”
They added of newspaper use and room hire: “We hope to get them up and running again as soon as it is safe to do so.”