Hello There Again

Hi there. How's it going? Are you well? Are you working? Are you holding it together? 

I'm holding it together. I'm working. I'm as well as anyone can be right now. I'm reading again, which is lovely. I'm going to see about blogging again. We shall see. Here's what's up with me: 

Photo of Abby wearing a protective mask with due dates stamped on it and holding a paper with a long list of holds to pull

I'm back in the library full time with the option to work from home whenever I want. This is one benefit of having a "behind the scenes" job. Honestly, I find it stressful to work from home. It seems like everything takes five times as long and when I'm home I want to be home and not at work. So I am preferring to be in the office right now. 

Our library has just started the first phase of opening to the public by offering computer appointments and hold pickup and self-checkout. We're only allowing patrons into the lobby right now and we don't have any browsing set up. Our schools are supposed to go back next week (!!) and families have the option to choose virtual learning. 

Since we're only doing curbside pickup (no browsing), our holds pull list is massive every morning, particularly on Mondays, which is when I took the photo above. I try to help out as much as I can when the public and customer service teams get busy. 

Currently, our staff is working in 2 teams so that we don't have so many people in the building at once. Since I'm there every day, I'm trying to be careful to not get too close to anyone. I'm working out of one of our meeting rooms on the days when our assistant is in our office because I know the air stagnates in there. 

We debuted Grab Bags and Book Care Packages to try to get some of the collection moving. It's so sad to see our Children's Room crammed full of popular series when it's NOT supposed to be like that in the summer. There are Pigeon books on the shelf! And Dog Man! And Raina Telgemeier! 

Now, with school looming, we're looking at resources we can provide to help new homeschoolers and families tackling virtual learning as well as our teachers and students. 

It's hard. 

It's hard to not know what's going to happen. 

It's hard that things are changing so frequently. 

It's hard to concentrate on work when you're worried about getting sick, worried when coworkers call in sick (is it THE VIRUS?), worried about next year's budget... 

And that's how things are right now. We're working incredibly hard to provide the services that we can. It doesn't feel like enough and yet some days it feels like too much to handle. 

How are you? 

PS: Blogging about books is coming. I'm trying to figure out a way to make it sustainable, but I really miss sharing about great books on here. Coming soon. Stay tuned. 

Hello There

How's everybody doing? Keeping on keeping on?

Photo of Abby wearing her book mask and a #TeamKentucky shirt that reads "Healthy But Nervous"

Sorry it's been a minute, but you know how it is right now. Here's what's been up with me.

We've all been working from home at my library since we closed on March 16. I'm so thankful that we have not had furloughs, although working from home has been a much bigger struggle for me than I thought it would. It's definitely very different, even for those of us who are mostly behind the scenes and who have access to most of the things we do at the office.

This past week, we started staffing the library in small teams and taking book returns. We are not open to the public. Tomorrow we start curbside pickup of holds and we have pulled for sure over 800 holds (some of which were from before we closed or right after we had closed). I am now working in my office at the library two or three days a week, wearing a mask and being careful to maintain distance and clean everything after use. I will continue to work from home the other days.

It feels relatively amazing to be able to provide curbside pickup and get at least a small sampling of our collection going back out into people's hands. We have been promoting and booktalking our digital collection throughout, but it in no way truly compensates for our print collection. We are looking at ways to provide computer services soon. Our director has been amazing, coming up with a phased plan that focuses on providing what we can for our community while keeping staff and patrons as safe as possible. We're proceeding deliberately even as some parts of our community throw the doors wide open.

Collection Development's about to get really busy because our vendors will be starting shipments again this week. The past two months have not felt like any kind of a respite, but they really were compared to the cataloging work I've got ahead of me once our books start shipping. On the one hand, I'm anxious about it, but on the other hand it's another kind of relief because it'll give me focus. And then the rest of it - the blog posts and webinars and TLEUs - will just have to wait because getting the books out to people will be the priority. As it should be. And maybe work from home with its ample time to concentrate on cataloging (when I'm not in a Zoom meeting....) will turn into a positive again.

I'm struggling to read right now. I'm struggling to write because so much of my work from home tasks have been writing heavy. We're trying to update our staff blog almost every day. And I've been throwing myself into my side work for NoveList and writing for School Library Journal and the ALSC Blog. My own blog seems to be the place that I'm struggling with the most (if I'm honest, because it does not really pay me).

So things will probably be a little slow around here for awhile. I'm still around. We'll get back into business here with regular posts at some point. Time is weird right now. It's either crawling or flying and there doesn't seem to be an in-between. I would love for everything to go back to normal, but I'm sensible enough to know that it doesn't just happen like that. I'll take my small moments of normal, like being in the office and picking up the phone to quickly resolve a question, where I can. And we'll just keep on keeping on.

How are you?

Connecting Kids to Digital Books During COVID

Guess what? After a few years' hiatus, I'm back as a regular contributor to the ALSC Blog! And my first post over there is about Connecting Kids to Digital Books During the COVID Pandemic. I know that many libraries' physical locations are closed right now, so how do we reach out to kids and promote the great digital books we have on offer?

Click over to the ALSC Blog to find some ideas and comment to let me know how you're connecting kids to books right now!

A Day in the Life of a COVID Work from Home Librarian

The world's a bit wonky right now and I know many (most? all?) of us are out of our normal daily routine. The life of librarians during the COVID-19 Pandemic looks very different right now and there are librarians dealing with all kinds of situations. There are librarians working from home (like I am lucky to be able to do). There are librarians not allowed to work from home, librarians who are reconfiguring jobs now that they can't do the work they normally would do, there are librarians who are on paid leave or unpaid leave or furloughed or laid off. My experience is by no means representative of the librarian population at large, but I thought you might be interested to see what a work from home day looks like for me.

So here we go... tomorrow might look completely different...

6:30am - My husband's alarm clock goes off and we both get up and start getting dressed. I check personal social media and snuggle with my cat Howie for a little bit before getting dressed. Yes, I'm getting dressed, doing my hair, and putting on makeup and earrings every morning. It helps me feel a little more normal at a time when nothing feels normal.

Photo of a librarian taking an early morning walk around the block

7:30am - I walk around the block for a morning "commute" and then eat breakfast. It's been helping me to add some movement in throughout my day, so I try to replicate the approximate times I would be traveling to and from the library with a short walk in the morning, at lunch time, and in the afternoon when my work is done for the day.

8:00am - I get settled in my "office" and start checking emails. In addition to going through my own email, I'm periodically checking our general information email where we've directed patrons to contact us with questions or help getting connected to our digital materials. We have several librarians checking it throughout the day to provide responses as quickly as possible. I also check our library's Facebook page to check for any questions or requests for help that have come through on there.

Photo of my "office" - a corner of my library with an armchair and a reading lamp. It's not the most comfortable for long-term sitting, so I tend to move around my house throughout the day.

8:30am - Only a few emails this morning, so I start working on some blog posts. Our staff blog is one of the few ways we have to communicate with our patrons right now, so we're trying to update it daily-ish. During normal times we update it twice a week and I have a team who are scheduled to post. We've been getting a lot of questions about accessing our digital resources, so I write up a post about getting started with our digital services for easy sharing.

10:45am - I switch over to working on creating some Hoopla collections. We are preparing to run our Summer Reading Program virtually, so one thing I have been thinking of is how to translate our grade-level book lists to digital formats. So far, I've been working with Hoopla and I'll tackle Overdrive in the future, too.

12:15pm - Time for a walk around the block and lunch! I heat up some 5 bean chili and watch an episode of Kim's Convenience while I eat. That's been a nice, happy show for me during this quarantine.

1:15pm - Back the the grind with more emails. I check up on some emails to patrons, answer emails about ALSC committee work and our spring reading program.

Photo of my "coworker", my cat Howie snuggling on my legs as I work

2:30pm - Time to work on some purchasing. I am still ordering materials while we are closed, although we are having our physical shipments held until we get staff back in the building regularly. Of course I am ordering digital materials, as well. My director has just cautioned us to be careful with our spending since tax delays and a high unemployment rate may affect our funding and the timing of getting our cash draws. I've recalculated my weekly spending goals and I'm sorting my "Upcoming" carts by popularity to make sure that I'm prioritizing the more popular books coming out in the next month or so.

4:00pm - Time for a brief ALSC Membership Committee meeting via Zoom.

4:30pm - Our meeting's done, so I check email again and then "clock out" and head to the park for a stress relief walk. I have been walking up a storm to help keep my anxiety at bay and to get some movement in my day since I'm sitting all day now. I'm on the lookout for ducklings at my local park, but haven't spotted any yet. I'm sure there will be some soon!

Photo of a tree with white blossoms against the blue spring sky

5:30pm - Back from the park, I check all of the email inboxes one last time before unplugging for the evening.

5:40pm - I shower from my walk and start cooking dinner (tacos tonight!)

6:30pm - My husband and I eat dinner and watch the news, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy (our normal routine).

8:00pm - I get started on some work for NoveList. I love my side gig writing readalikes as a NoveList contributor

8:00pm - WELL. The plan was to work on some NoveList work after dinner, BUT my amazing husband bought me a Nintendo Switch for our anniversary, so instead we spend the evening playing Animal Crossing. I'll work on NoveList stuff this weekend. ;)

10:00pm - Heading to bed with a book. I'm reading Parachutes by Kelly Yang (her YA debut) and I'm loving it.

10:30pm - I'm exhausted and it's time for lights out. Good night!

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?