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I've been getting a lot of direct messages and replies from folks wondering why they shouldn't be doing curbside pickup for libraries, so here's a thread: (1/?)
First and foremost, doing curbside pickup means 1 of 2 things: Option 1: you give PPE to library staff in order to do curbside, to protect them and the public, which means you are comfortable taking PPE away from health care workers (2/?)
Option 2: you don't providing PPE for staff, which means you are comfortable with putting your staff and patrons at risk of getting ill or dying. That's it. Those are your two options for providing curbside. (3/?)
"What about fabric masks?" Fabric masks may help prevent people who are already infected from spreading it to others, and everyone leaving the house should be wearing them. (3/?)
However, having staff wearing masks will not prevent them from getting it from a patron not wearing a mask, from the surface of a book or door handle. Relying on fabric masks when you're working with 100s of patrons a day is not going to protect your staff. (4/?)
"Staff can make those! Or we can make them in the makerspace!" As someone who runs our Makerspace and is fielding requests for masks across our county, this is an unrealistic expectation. I have 5 staff making masks--I had requests for over 1000 masks just last week (5/?)
Even if we had more manpower (which we're working on), supplies are hard to find. Most of our staff are using materials they already own because it's so hard to get supplies right now. I managed to get the last 10 packs bias tape from Joann-which makes 20 masks (6/?)
"But isn't it like restaurants offering curbside service?" No. I imagine when most folks are getting curbside services, they aren't eating the food, then returning the container to the restaurant to be used by another person. (7/?)
We're also giving people a reason to leave their house and a place to congregate, two things we should all be avoiding right now. The more people are coming into contact with one another, the higher the risk becomes. (8/?)
"But libraries are essential, especially in times of crisis." This is something I've heard a lot of, and I don't want to get too much into vocational awe, but yes, libraries provide resources for people, especially those who are vulnerable. (9/?)
I understand that in shutting our doors pandemic, there are people who are going to be negatively affected by it. The idea that library staff should put themselves at risk, and they should be putting their patrons at risk is misplaced and dangerous. (10/?)
Libraries have plenty of services they can provide remotely. We can provide virtual and phone reference. There are eBooks, and eAudiobooks, streaming movies, newspapers, databases and more. We can do online programs. Many libraries are already doing this. (11/?)
We can also use our research skills to do digital equity surveys and find what areas in our region have limited access to internet, and use our networking skills to address it. There are a lot of things that we can be doing while keeping staff and patrons safe (12/?)
The thing is, offering curbside isn't serving our most vulnerable patrons. It's offering books, and as much as I believe in ongoing literacy, and that books and other media are incredibly important, they are not a priority right now. (13/?)
I do understand that part of libraries wanting to implement curbside is to demonstrate our value to our county boards/admin/etc. because we all know budget cuts are here and more are coming. But we need to figure out ways to do that without putting peoples' lives at risk (14/?)
If there's one thing that most libraries are good at, it's adapting to change. The truth is that we're going to be in this for a while, and thinking of ways that we can serve the public while keeping everyone safe is going to be a challenge, but one I think we can take on (/end)
