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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.

We are passing on this sample template checklist from an elementary school. If your school or library isn’t providing this, you can use it to set up your own checklist.

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.

This global pandemic that has already infected millions of people around the globe is, hopefully, the largest historic event in all of our lives. (We really don’t want anything worse!) People will be talking about this pandemic, and writing about it, and learning lessons from it for hundreds of years in the future. So at the very least – we all want to be on the good side of history! Everyone has a role to play here – and we want our roles to be on the positive side. (No jerks, please! This isn’t the time for tantrums.)

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.

Remember: things are going to keep evolving as we learn more about COVID. Keep paying attention to these reputable sources for the best information. As we record this, some schools and colleges and libraries have already opened up to the public – and some of them have had to shut right back down. Things are going to keep changing, and that’s okay – that means we are learning and doing more to keep people safe.

And a few things will definitely help yourself and everyone else to stay safe: 

• Wear a mask anytime you are inside! Do it right – no masks over your chin, or pulling it down to talk, or other clearly silly behavior! Do this; every epidemiologist says it’s the best way we can keep ourselves and others safe. We do not want to hear complaints on this point. 
• Wash your hands a lot! Sure, after the bathroom. But are you touching surfaces that others are touching, like doors, library counters, or desks? Work out a plan to wash your hands a few times in the morning and a few times in the afternoon, or at least to have your hand sanitizer close by all the time.
• And keep yourself as socially isolated as possible. This is no time to go to parties, to go to concerts and movies, or otherwise putting yourself in crowded situations. You may need to go to work, and that may be more crowded than desirable – but keep yourself as isolated as possible when you can.

We are all going to be working with this virus for a while – another year is a very likely estimate. Let’s keep focusing on the things we can do to keep ourselves and our community as safe as possible!

We are going to start with the basics.

As we record this at the end of August, Minnesota is in Phase Three of our Stay Safe Plan. This gives us some guidelines for everyone to follow so we can keep the virus down as much as possible. Here are the guidelines that are always required, no matter what what phase we are in:

• Facial coverings are required according to Executive Order 20-81.
• All non-Critical Sector businesses are required to have adopted and implemented a COVID-19 Preparedness Plan by June 29, 2020.
• Always stay six feet away from others.
• Must telework if you can.

Then Phase Three guidelines give some other strategies to help you stay as safe as possible:

• Social Settings: Outdoors: Gatherings of 25 or less; Indoors: Gatherings of 10 or less 
• Retail: Open (50% capacity, must have COVID-19 preparedness plan)
• Gyms, personal fitness and yoga studios, martial arts Location: Indoors and outdoors Capacity: 6 feet of social distance, max 25%, not to exceed 250 individuals for indoors and outdoors settings each 
• Child Care: Open per CDC guidance
• Organized Sports (Adult and Youth): Open with guidance

And there are several more guidelines set up for us to follow. We link to all of this in our show notes, for your quick reference.

Of course, ideally everyone would have been following all of the guidelines all spring and summer, so that when we were ready to reopen school buildings to staff and kids – the virus would be pretty much in check. While that didn’t happen, school will go on! What school will look like is going to be different in different places

At the end of July, the Department of Education and the Governor’s office released the Safe Learning Plan for Minnesota. It’s going to be tough to make this happen – any plan would be hard to do. So take a nice deep relaxing breath, and get ready to do your best!

“School districts and charter schools will begin in one of three models: in-person, distance learning, or a hybrid model. This determination will be announced by your local school district.

“The Departments of Education and Health will work with school districts and local health professionals throughout the school year to help districts decide if and when they need to shift between models depending on the progression of the virus in their specific community.”

So, we know that it is pretty likely that the model your school will start with in September may not last through the calendar year. And parents can choose to have their child doing distance learning, regardless of the model the school is choosing. That means libraries, and everyone else, needs to be ready to be flexible to serve community members safely in the library – and to serve them in a digital environment.

It would be great if this was easy, and if everyone was going to be happy about it all. But probably the only thing you can be sure is going to be true for the next year is that this is going to be hard, it’s going to require struggle and sacrifices, and that most people are going to be unhappy with at least some of these things.

Take another deep calming breath. This is our best option. Just pretending like we aren’t in the middle of a global health crisis is not a good choice. Keep doing the best you can, and do not get worried about trying to be perfect. It’s okay. This is all going to be a very interesting story we can talk about for the rest of our lives! Just keep moving forward, and keep working on safety.

Let’s talk about some things libraries should be doing to keep things as safe as possible. Keep in mind that just like any other health crisis, we cannot promise complete safety to anyone; focus on safer behaviors and practices.

Use the REALM guidance to ensure you have the best, most up-to-date practices for a safer reopening. This is the Reopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums project. “OCLC, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Battelle are conducting research on how long the COVID-19 virus survives on materials that are prevalent in libraries, archives, and museums. The project will draw upon the research to produce authoritative, science-based information on how—or if— materials can be handled to mitigate exposure to staff and visitors.”

“We encourage you to sign up to receive project updates by email and/or bookmark this page, as it will be the primary source for sharing all program results and resources. You can also follow OCLC on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn for the latest project updates and join the conversation using #REALMproject.”

Your school may not have a clear idea of what specific needs are in the library, so be sure to share this information with your administrators. We are hearing stories of libraries planning to “disinfect” books by wiping the covers with bleach, and other such totally useless practices. It only takes a quick thought to realize that even if it wasn’t completely destructive to a paper book to try this, there is no way every single page of the book can be wiped or that the binding can be wiped. 

If you are in one of the twelve CMLE counties, and your school is still struggling with some guidance, please let us know. We will be happy to reach out and to share this information with administrators and school boards, to help everyone make good decisions and practices.

So, what is the REALM research showing for libraries? 

Back in June, they released the initial information about the first library formats and the practices we can use to keep them safe: Test One This looked at Hardback book cover, paperback book cover, plain paper pages, plastic protective cover, DVD case. “Results show that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was not detectable on the materials after three days of quarantine.” [Note: this three day quarantine will be changed to four days in the next test; so don’t get confused!]

In July, they worked on the second round of materials in Test Two: Braille paper pages, glossy paper pages, magazine pages, children’s board book, archival folders. “Samples from each item were inoculated and placed inside the closed book or magazine. The items were then configured to mimic common storage conditions such as stacked or shelved books, or a pile of folders or magazines. (In Test 1, the items were not stacked.) 

• Results show that after two days of quarantine in a stacked configuration, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was not detectable on the archival folders.
• After four days of quarantine in their stacked configuration, the virus was not detectable on the braille pages, glossy book pages, and board book.
• The magazine pages showed a trace amount of virus at four days. Day four was the final timepoint tested.

“Compared to the results of Test 1, the results of Test 2 indicate that a slightly longer quarantine time for some types of cellulose-based paper materials sitting in a stacked configuration may be required to render SARS-CoV-2 undetectable.”

As we record, their Project Test Three results have just been released. The materials included the following items: Talking book, USB cassette, DVDs, plastic storage bags, and plexiglass.

“Results show that after five days of quarantine in an unstacked configuration, the virus was not detected on the storage bag (flexible plastic) or the DVD. The storage container (rigid plastic), plexiglass, and the USB cassette all showed detectable virus at five days. Day five was the final timepoint tested.

Compared to the results of Test 1 and 2, this data suggests that a slightly longer quarantine time for these types of plastic-based materials may be required to render SARS-CoV-2 undetectable through natural attenuation alone. Alternatively, based on the materials’ nonporous nature, suitable liquid disinfection methods may promote a more rapid decontamination than the quarantine method.*”

Okay, so what does this mean for your library?

• Staff need to have masks, gloves, and a boatload of good cleaning products. This is not the time to have cleaning spray that just smells nice; this is the time to have heavy-duty bleach spray.
• When books come back from being checked out, they need to be dropped into a bin or onto a cart by a staffer wearing gloves. Put a sticky note onto it with the date, then push it into a back room, a storage area, a closet, or anywhere else nobody will be around it. Come back in four days, and they should be virus free. 
• Board books are not showing the virus after four days, so follow the same procedures you would use for other paper books. 
• If you have archival folders, stack them up – again wearing gloves – and leave them in that isolated area. They should be okay after two days. We would give it the full 48 hours, to be sure.
• If you have magazines, the testing here stopped after four days and the virus was still on them. It would be safest to just pull all your magazines for now, as many libraries are already doing. 
• If you have flexible plastic bags with kits and other neat things – the plastic bags will be okay to touch and circulate after five days. Again, put them into a bin or a box, while you are wearing gloves, then set the in a back room and ignore them for five more days. Depending on what is inside the kits, different protocols will need to be followed.
• If you have DVDS, the DVD itself is okay to touch after five days. The hard plastic container it is in will need to be carefully wiped down with cleaner. The virus was still on it when testing stopped after five days, so it needs that extra effort. Don’t spray cleaner on a DVD though! It will be ruined.
• All the plexiglass shelving, boxes, and containers you have around the library need to be cleaned after anyone touches them. There was still virus detected on these surfaces after five days when they stopped testing, so it’s not just going away on these items. Get the gloves, get some cleaner, and do some very careful wiping. 

This is a lot to remember! But we have all of this on our shownotes page for this episode, so just click on the link to get there. And you can go right to the source and read all this material yourself any time. We are all here, working together, to get these things done!

For the rest of library work, follow some standard guidelines to keep people six feet apart whenever possible. Try implement as many of these suggestions as possible:

• Put up plexiglass barriers between staff and patrons, and set them to discourage patrons from just sticking their faces around the barrier.
• Put stickers or tape on the floor to indicate six feet. If you have people lining up to check out books, let them know where to stand. 
• Take out every other computer, or unplug them, or otherwise disable them. If you have a whole line of computers, measure to be sure you are asking people to sit at least six feet apart when using one.
• Take chairs out of your library. And the ones that are left need to be set up so they are at least six feet apart. If you have those nice soft plush chairs – it’s probably time to stick them in the back room and save them for situations that are not a global pandemic. You only want to have out tables and chairs that can be easily cleaned.
• You can buy clear plastic bags that are pretty cheap to cover keyboards. Slide a bag onto the keyboard, then you can wipe down the bag after each person uses it. Throw it away at the end of the day. Wear gloves!
• Tables, chairs, counters, doors, handles, computers, and plexiglass dividers all need to be wiped down multiple times a day. Wear gloves!

We have talked pretty frequently about serving your community online. And there are a lot of great resources out there to give you some guidance. Probably the most important thing to remember is the foundation of all library work: sharing information with people. The tools we use will change all the time, but that is what we do. So here are a few ideas to help you to keep sharing information:

• Use social media! Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – go where people are and share your stuff there. Even if you are just reminding students and parents that the library is there, and that you are thinking about them – that’s great.
• Get your website organized. And if you do not already have a page on the schools’ website, it’s time to change that. (Call us! We can help to design it for you!) You want to have links to the databases you provide, to training in doing good citations, to information about digital citizenship work and skills, and of course information about the books you have for them.
• Make connections with your public library, so students and parents can get easy access to library cards that give them even more information and resources, including ebooks and audiobooks.
• You do not have to do it all, and it is a waste of time for you to try. Connect to other organizations that provide resources for your community.
  • Ebooks Minnesota for Schools, from Minitex, has tons of great books
  • Mn Writes, MN Reads, gives access to all sorts of books from local authors
  • We set up a page a day while school buildings were closed in the spring: What Are We Doing Today?. Each day had five activities for kids, so take any of them and adapt to your own needs. 
  • PBS Kids has all kinds of fun activities for kids, and they can be used in educational ways
  • Wide Open School from Commonsense Media: so many great class topics here, for K-12, you can keep people busy and learning all day!

We are going to wrap this up now, and it has been a lot to consider. Hopefully you have been hearing and working with some of this already. Just keep trying to do your best. Wear a mask and wash your hands. None of us are going to be perfect at this, but we can all try to keep people safe while we share the great materials in our libraries. 

CMLE is here to help support you in your work. If you have questions, or need to talk through some plans, or want someone to talk with your administrators and school boards about library services and safety – send us an email. We are at admin@cmle.org. And we support you in your library work!