Head Tale

In a time of unprecedented challenges, the big debate in libraryland is how/when libraries should reopen.

There are good reasons on both sides of the ledger but as Saskatchewan libraries inch closer to reopening, here’s a few of the main ones…

LIBRARIES *SHOULD* BEGIN RE-OPENING
1. The single biggest reason libraries should be reopening is that various other parts of society have either been able to stay open (grocery stores, liquor stores, etc.) or are now beginning the process of reopening (clothing stores, hair salons, etc.) in a modified form or using modified processes.  So why would libraries be exempt?

2. Libraries regularly talk about how essential they are to society and even how they are, in many ways, the embodiment of democracy.  If a tattoo parlour reopens and you don’t, are you *really* essential though?

3. Our patrons need us.  Not all of them as some will have moved to digital books and using their own computers and doing their printing at Staples.  But for many, we are their connection to the world, their entertainment source, often one of their few social connections in a cruel world.

4. Just as is the case with other businesses and organizations, no one is saying that “reopening” means “back to exactly how it was.”  Most libraries that are beginning to reopen are moving very slowly – allowing people to return books through the book drop (which are then quarantined for 24 hours to a week), offering curbside pick-up, maybe even allowing a small number of people into the branch at a time.

5. It’s been two months and I *really* need a break from my kids! 🙂

Bonus: I don’t want to give the current Sask government any reason to target libraries!

LIBRARIES *SHOULDN’T* BEGIN RE-OPENING
1. The biggest reason libraries shouldn’t re-open is the potential risks to staff safety.  Even with every precaution, Covid is such an invisible threat – because it’s transmitted by asymptomatic people, because no one can predict exactly how it will affect people who get it, because its long-term effects still aren’t known – the best course of action is for people to avoid any possible exposures as much as possible.

2. It depends on the circumstances whether libraries are “important” or “essential”.  But in the current world, I’d lean towards the things that the library offers as being in the “important” but not essential category.  Will someone die if they don’t get a print copy of the latest John Grisham?  They might act like they will but it’s *very* unlikely.

3. In the earlier list, I mentioned that many others in society stayed open or finding ways to re-open.  One huge difference is that libraries aren’t a for-profit enterprise so, although being closed for an extended period does have an impact in terms of the library’s fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers, libraries also don’t have the same considerations as a small business person who may have invested thousands of their own money into their operation.  Or who have staff that have been laid off who they feel an obligation to get back working ASAP.  Or they have expenses that are mounting up in terms of rent and utilities and so on.  Libraries tend to get budgets approved for a full year and though that can change, it’s a very different mindset then a business that earns money which it then uses to pay expenses (hopefully with some profit left over at the end.)

4. Another huge difference is that libraries are one of the few places in society where people can enter and linger as long as they want – minutes, hours or all day.  That actually might be one of the ways libraries change when they reopen – maybe you get a wristband or some sort of indicator when you enter and then a buzzer sounds every hour to say you must vacate to make room for the next group of people to enter (possibly after staff have spritzed the library with Lysol spray?)  Oh, and I should admit I stole this wristband idea from a local trampoline park that charges you based on the time you enter and the colour-coded wrist-band you get.  (Unethical life hack – show up just before the turn of the hour and you’ll get a wristband for the hour-long slot that’s just finishing!)

5. None of my pants fit anymore and if the library reopens, I might have to show up in sweatpants! 😉

Bonus: I mentioned the possible risk from the Sask government but I can assure you this would be a *very* different article if I was an American librarian where the political and cultural environment is *very* different.  Libraries are basically being forced to open by hostile governments while the virus is spreading like wildfire (to put it in perspective, the US officially passed 100,000 Covid deaths today and I don’t think Canada has had 100,000 *cases* of Covid yet.)