This week we are sharing this bonus episode to help libraries, especially school libraries, to gather and share information about reopening as safely as possible. There is not going to be a strategy to make it all perfectly safe for everyone; but there are steps to take to make it safer for staff and patrons.

You can check out our show notes right here. All the links we discuss are here, and all the info we are sharing today, are collected here.

We are still in the early stages of this global pandemic, so our understanding of what we should do is still evolving, and will keep evolving as we get better at all of this. We are sharing the best information we are finding right now, and encourage everyone to keep paying attention to updates from good science resources.

A tip to keep in mind as we work through this: If you feel like you have to get mad about the guidance – remember that it’s the virus we are all mad at. A virus is what is requiring us to wear masks, to socially isolate, and to have such disruption not just in our own lives but across the globe. It’s not an elected official, it’s not a principal or a school board. Nobody is doing this for the joy of wrecking everyone’s good time. This is the largest public health emergency in our lifetimes. And we all need to follow some guidance from health experts to get through this.

We are going to talk about a couple of main topics: First: the Minnesota’s Stay Safe Plan and the Safe Learning Plan for the 2020-21 School Year for Minnesota schools. And we are going to talk about science research from the REALM project from OCLC and the IMLS – international leaders in the library profession working to help us all. And we will work in some best practices we are seeing in libraries already, to keep things safe.