Madison Public Library
The library is ramping up for reopening soon for in-person browsing and checkout.
Marc Gartler, manager of the Sequoya and Alicia Ashman branches of the Madison Public Library, gets emotional looking back over the last year of limited services. “We really miss people,” Gartler says. “Sorry, I’m a little choked up saying this.”
Libraries, he says, are not just important to patrons but also staff: “Those little sparks of joy, they mean so much to so many of us. Those kids who are getting their first library card, people from other cultures who are coming here from other countries, hungry for knowledge, and they realize that the library is all free. This is why we do it.”
There’s good news for Gartler and all fans of the public library: On April 1, the nine-member library board will consider a proposal to reopen branches on April 19. This will include all Madison libraries including the small Monroe Street branch. If the proposal passes, all libraries except Monroe Street will be open for browsing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 1-6 p.m. and Saturdays from 1-5 p.m.; additional hours for computer access will be available. Monroe Street will be open for in-person access Monday, Tuesday and Friday from 1-6 p.m. but will have no computer access hours.
It’s been a long time coming. Madison libraries closed entirely last March 17 due to COVID-19 and slowly began re-adding services: curbside pickup of material that patrons request online began May 11, and limited in-library appointments for computer use started shortly thereafter. Libraries have been closed for browsing ever since, but staff have been ramping up in preparation for reopening.
Curbside delivery has worked out well for the most part, but Gartler notes that the current procedure of placing holds, having librarians check out the books and bag them, and then place them on tables in front of the libraries at an appointment time, is “labor intensive” and that “many collections don’t lend themselves to being checked out without browsing, like cookbooks and children’s picture books.”
Yesianne Ramírez-Madera, supervisor of the Meadowridge branch, says librarians have found ways to help patrons check out the more browse-oriented materials: “We’ll put together a bag of [DVD] movies and put it in the window and people can just knock on the window, and we’re prepared to check that out immediately.”
Ramírez-Madera also notes that curbside will continue after libraries reopen for people who are vulnerable to the coronavirus.
Browsing, however, will be returning with the reopening. Procedures will be changing, though, to facilitate social distancing. Self-checkout will be encouraged and in some cases more self-checkout stations have been added. Some alterations are unique to particular locations; for instance, the site of the self-service hold shelf at Sequoya created a bottleneck, says Gartler, so that has been moved for greater social distancing.
Madison Public Library
New plexiglass shields are among the safety procedures that will be in place when libraries reopen.
Mark Benno, Madison Public Library’s facilities manager, says that mask wearing and social distancing will be important. Plexiglass shields like those at grocery stores have been added at checkout and reference desks, and sometimes an extra table has been added to increase the distance between a library staffer and patrons. Drinking fountains will not be operable unless they are the bottle-filler style. “Touch points,” like checkout stations and computer screens and keyboards, will be disinfected on a regular basis.
“People won’t be able to hang out or sit down,” Benno says. Couches and other lounge seating will be roped off with caution tape or turned upside down. It’s likely there will be time limits set for how long patrons can browse.
Ramírez-Madera of Meadowridge, the second smallest branch after Monroe Street, says that she doesn’t anticipate that limitation will last very long, as more people become vaccinated.
Air filtration won’t be a problem, Benno says; the HVAC systems are set to move air for the library’s largest occupation capacities, and there will be limits on the number of people allowed inside that will be much smaller than that.
The biggest challenge has been “getting cleaning supplies,” Benno says. “The global demand for disinfectants and hand sanitizer, it’s still pinched. We have been getting partial shipments.” In some cases the library has settled “for a brand we may not have preferred.”
One challenge the public might not have thought of: staffing. Although the library lost 15.8 FTE in the current city budget, there are still vacancies throughout the system. Krissy Wick, Madison Public Library’s director of public service, says that she and her staff have done 150 interviews in March alone for about 20 vacancies. “We have a lot of hourly staff and a high turnover rate among high school and college students,” says Wick, and many of those former employees have found other jobs. There are also professional vacancies among clerks and library assistants.
Wick has conducted focus groups with her staff every quarter since the libraries closed to find out “what’s working and what’s not,” and she says that people are “excited to see more patrons and provide more services, to see more books go out of the libraries,” even though there is still concern for “their personal health and health of patrons.”
Many librarians are getting their vaccinations and Wick also needs to plan for staff needing to take time off to get their second doses after libraries reopen.
Marc Gartler, of Sequoya and Alicia Ashman, says there is “anticipation but with some anxiety,” but overall he is confident about the reopening. “We’ve developed good procedures as we have learned more about COVID,” he says. “Coming to the library is an experience for people. We really want to be open.”
