Google Hangout Book Club

Photo from our book club meeting. A book, an adult beverage, and a laptop computer sit on a table.

Last night my Family Book Club met over Google Hangouts and it was just what my soul needed. After weeks of social distancing and after canceling our meeting, which was supposed to be last week, it was so great to see everyone and connect and talk about books and to just do something NORMAL. If you've been missing your book club, I recommend giving it a try!

Google Hangouts was pretty easy to manage, even for those who had not ever done one before. It did require some installation of apps and some troubleshooting for some of our members to get cameras all set up, so give yourself a little extra time when trying it for the first time. Go to hangouts.google.com and read this tutorial on starting a group conversation to get started. With Gmail, you can invite up to 10 people to a video call. To have a call with more than 10, it looks like you need to have a Google Business or Google Education account. 

You'll be able to see everyone at the same time with the person speaking being the main video and everyone else in thumbnails at the bottom of the screen. You can also click on one of the thumbnails to keep that video as your main video. That came in really handy when one of our club members gave us a tour of her new house! 

Now that we've got one Google Hangout under our belts, we're prepared for next month's book club meeting, should we need to continue meeting digitally. I realized that since I don't currently have access to my library and our digital copy of our next title has a hold list, I probably need to purchase the book. Support your independent bookstores, now more than ever!

While Amazon is taking weeks to ship stuff, your local stores are most likely going to be quicker and they need your support. I ordered our next book from my local indie, Carmichael's Bookstore, which is offering free shipping on orders over $50, plus free local delivery and free curbside pickup. 

Since I wanted it shipped, of course I had to add some storytime books to push it over the $50 limit. I've been FaceTiming with my 3-year-old niece for bedtime stories every night this week and I'm going to run out of picture books at some point, since I don't have access to my library. Now I'll be set up for another few days at least! 

It was so nice to do something that felt normal, to have my adult beverage in the comfort of my kitchen and to know that I'm being safe but I'm also getting to visit my friends. I hope you get to do something that feels normal (even if it's happening in an atypical way) this week. 

Self Care During COVID19

Last week, I posted about some of the things my library is doing to serve our patrons during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week I felt a great deal of panic. Our buildings were shuttered suddenly and we had never approached switching to an all-virtual model before. There was lots of figuring-out-of-things and I felt like it all had to happen yesterday so that our patrons knew that we want to help them and that we're here during this crisis.

I can't live long term at the stress level I put on myself last week, so here are a few things I have already learned in the brief time I've been working from home:

This is a photo of the solitary daffodil that grows in my garden.

Being accessible doesn't mean you personally being accessible 24/7. When our buildings are open as normal, we have regular hours. Some services are available 24/7 (like access to our databases), some services are available only during open hours (like resolving expired library cards). It's okay to continue that when we are serving our patrons virtually. No one is demanding that we answer their question immediately at every hour of the day. Do what is reasonable. Check as often as is reasonable and turn it off for the night at some point.

Take breaks, drink water, get outside. The first few days I was working on so much all at once that I was skipping some activities I need to keep me healthy and happy. Take a breath. It'll all get done. I need to get outside for a bit when the weather allows. It's okay to be a bit flexible with my at-home work schedule so that I can de-stress myself.

Keep in touch with colleagues. It feels like we're each working in a vacuum, I know, but connecting with my colleagues via text, email, or Facebook messenger has helped. I don't feel the need to micromanage, but I do feel the need to know that I'm not alone and to let my colleagues know they're not alone. I need folks to brainstorm with, to bounce ideas off of. And we can still have that even if we're not in the same building. I know this is going to become more and more important as we need to brainstorm additional innovative ways to reach our patrons in the coming weeks.

Work wherever works for you. We don't all have a home office (I don't, really). My husband's working from home, too. He's camped out in the basement, I set myself up in my armchair in my library. Set up a desk if that works for you, but if working on the couch with the TV in the background or in bed with your laptop works for you, do what you need to do.

Keep informed, but turn the news off every now and then. This speaks for itself. I've noticed that Facebook has been flagging some posts that have misinformation, which I think is really great.

FaceTime or video chat with family and friends. I miss my parents and my nieces so much! But it helps to connect with them and see their faces and talk to them every now and then.

Make some time for reading! With so much screen time each day and so much frantic activity, it's been hard to get my brain to focus and let me read some books. I need this! I am trying to take breaks from my phone and read each night.

What are you doing to take care of yourself?

Library Life During COVID-19

So, things have been a bit bananas lately, eh?

Virtual storytime! Photo shows my toddler nieces watching a video of me reading a book

My library closed to the public on Monday, March 16 and we had an all-day staff meeting (keeping appropriately socially distanced from each other - we literally were sitting at eight separate tables for our leadership meeting) to inform staff and come up with a plan. Leadership brainstormed all the things we needed to think about and make changes to for when we closed. We ended up officially closing our physical locations that night and are currently closed through March 30.

It's super important to note that as of this writing, not every library building is closed and there are many still expecting staff to report in ways that I think are really dangerous. The American Library Association has released a statement have recommended that academic, public, and school library leaders evaluate closing libraries to the public to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We can continue to serve patrons without demanding that staff risk their lives by reporting to work. If a library in your community is still open or still requiring staff to report, speak up to library Board members and funding bodies (county or city councils, mayors, etc.) and tell them that for the safety of all, library staff should not be reporting.

How are we serving our patrons while our physical buildings are closed? 

There's an important distinction to be made here. Our physical buildings are closed, but that does not mean that library service has stopped. Our digital collections are available and we're working on making virtual programming available.

Ensure Access

One big task that we have on our plates right now is to make sure that as many people have access to our digital materials as possible. I worked with our ILS this week to extend due dates and hold pickup dates for our patrons, including anything checked out since 1/1/19, even if it had gone to lost. We also extended card expiration dates to the end of the year.

At this time we do not want anyone blocked from access to our digital materials. We are already a fine free library, so for us this includes forgiving outstanding fees and finding ways to work around lost materials and staying accessible so that if patrons have issues with their accounts (don't know their PIN, expired card, etc.) we can help them resolve those issues as quickly as possible.

We also provide online borrower registration. Typically, that gives new patrons 90-day access to our digital material without having to come inside the building to get a card. We extended the 90 days to provide access through the end of 2020.

Be Present

Facebook is our main source of patron interaction and we're making sure to check notifications and messages frequently. We are also checking our general information email regularly and staff have been assigned to check our various voicemails and respond to patrons. We are also offering programming as best we can.

Behind the scenes at the library! Photo shows library staff recording a puppet show and song on the ukulele

For children's programming, that's included recording story readalouds and storytimes ourselves, as well as sharing resources that others are providing.

Many publishers are responding to the COVID-19 school closures by offering special permissions for digital sharing of their books. Author Kate Messner has been collecting these policies on her website, which you can view here. With publishers doing their best to meet us halfway while still honoring their legal copyright contracts, librarians need to be doing our best to hold to these copyright standards when sharing materials online.

Some publishers are stipulating that materials only be shared in a closed group, such as a Google Classroom, etc. that's only available to a subset of students. My library hasn't explored what this looks like for us yet - so far we have been concentrating on titles from publishers that have offered more flexible options for public libraries. But it's something we're thinking about!

To round out what we're able to offer to patrons, we're also frequently posting resources from other sources that parents and kids may find interesting and useful. There are tons of folks and organizations offering virtual programs right now. Some of my favorites include:

• LUNCH DOODLES with Mo Willems from The Kennedy Center
• Home Safari from the Cincinnati Zoo
• Music classes from Candy Mountain Music (she offered a super cute St. Patrick's Day class this week and will begin MWF classes next week)
• Draw Every Day with JJK - drawing classes from Jarrett Krosoczka, author of the Lunch Lady graphic novels
• Storytime from Space - stories from the International Space Station

I'm sure our list of virtual programming will grow as we navigate the coming weeks. Working from home when you're used to serving the community is super weird, even for someone like me who is mostly behind the scenes at my job now. I have found that staying in touch with my colleagues is really helpful to me and keeping track of tasks I want to accomplish in my bullet journal is helpful to me. And I guess we'll just see how things go as we get used to a "new normal". 

How are you living your library life during COVID-19?

I'd love to hear about the things you're doing or planning. What struggles are you having right now? What innovative services are you coming up with?