Three weeks in heightened health protocol? Is not a fun experience; especially not when they have closed down the library for the last 9 days of it.
I still have to be at the desk of course, I’m the internet girl after all, and the paper puzzles are still being handed out since nothing can be left out for self-service. But the actual library itself – that’s closed. People can peer at the books through the grates, but that’s it. And all books that come back are logged and quarantined for several weeks before they can be returned to circulation anyway, so we’re low on most of the best-selling authors. I can’t start putting anything back on the shelves until we’re out of this.
Needless to say, morale on the ship has plummeted somewhat.
Unfortunately, because I’m still at the desk, a lot of the frustration with regards to the situation of my particular office is directed…at me. I do so dearly wish that people would realize that the decision to suspend the library service was not mine, and while I play a part in reporting the day to day situation to the people in charge, the decision to reopen is not mine either. The books are a major cross-contamination risk, made worse by the fact that we know for certain that people are already loaning books they’ve already checked out back and forth between their friends and tablemates leaving us with at least one hundred titles that are basically unaccounted for and have been who knows where, that can’t be properly quarantined until they are eventually returned which will be who knows when.
I am the last person in the world who would ever want to deny people the printed word. While I have often though that closing the library would be the best way to proceed in similar situations, as it essentially breaks part of the cycle and keeps one of the possible cross-contamination variables to a minimum – I would never have anticipated the closure to be this long. If I could just get people to understand that this was done for their own good – and that we need them to just continue being patient.
This is not exactly fun for any of us…
And unfortunately, patience is getting to be in shorter and shorter supply…