Some thoughts on closing libraries to the public but making your staff come in to work anyway.
1. Libraries employ a lot of people who are elderly, immunocompromised, or who have other serious health conditions which they are managing. Having them come to work is dangerous.
1. Libraries employ a lot of people who are elderly, immunocompromised, or who have other serious health conditions which they are managing. Having them come to work is dangerous.
2. Libraries also employ a lot of working parents. Compelling them to come in to work when schools are closed forces them to scramble to make child care arrangements (often involving elderly caregivers); also, parents may bring their children's germs into the workplace.
3. Keeping libraries open to "answer emails and phone calls" sounds great in theory, but in a crisis such as this 75%+ of your ?'s are going to be "Are you guys open?" and "What about my overdue books?"- both questions are better answered with a phone recording or your website.
4. Offering curbside book delivery also sounds awesome, but when you consider that more than half of your loans are coming from other libraries in your consortium and most courier services will NOT be delivering books during the crisis the demand is going to peak very early on.
5. Now there ARE some interesting online services that libraries could offer- such as virtual storytime- but they do not require staff to physically travel to the library to do them. Ditto for answering any actual reference questions that might arrive via phone/email.
6. I see a lot of librarians "excited" that working while closed will let them catch up on projects or do long-term maintenance. While I understand the impulse, I would argue that any library that needs a catastrophe to get caught up is not being managed well during normal times.
7. If your library is closed to the public but making your staff report for duty to do busy work all day, that speaks volumes about your relationship with your town/board/other stakeholders and is something that you need to address before the next crisis rolls along.
And that's the thread. Librarians, you know I love you all. I know many of you are trying to do the right thing, and I know a lot of this is completely out of your control. I'm writing this in hopes of convincing the directors who CAN help influence the decision-making process.
8. Okay, Bonus Point #1- All of this confusion and uncertainty about what services libraries should and shouldn't offer during a public health crisis- or any kind of crisis- could be GREATLY lessened if you actually do some disaster planning between now and the next crisis.
9. Bonus Point #2- If you have no choice but to make your staff work during a public library closure, one thing you should ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY work on is figure out what your library's programs and services will look like when you re-open but COVID-19 is still a danger.
9a. History tells us the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 abated over the summer only to roar back that fall with a vengeance. It will be tempting to try to go back to "business as usual" as soon as the worst of the crisis is past, but until we have a vaccine, we need a new normal.
