The Place Where You Could Always Say Yes
They really were a place where you could say yes to everything. I mean, you still can if you’re checking out e-books, but it’s different because I’m always aware that when I check out an e-book, I’m using up one of the book checkouts. (Libraries pay for a two-year contract for each copy of the e-book or 52 checkouts. Then they have to buy a new copy.) I didn’t feel badly saying “yes” to a physical book and then not reading it, but I don’t do that with e-books because that wastes library budgets.
Prior to Covid-19, if I was in a bad mood, I’d go to the library and browse the shelves. Sometimes I went home with nothing. Sometimes I checked out a book just for the sake of bringing something home. Retail therapy without any money exchanged.
So this is exactly what I miss:
Because libraries are places of abundance. Where else can you look at something, be only 13% sure you want it, and bring it home anyway, risk-free? Where else can you say to your children, “Pick out anything you want, anything at all.” I’m not rich, but at the library I could be extravagant.
At the heart of that post is the real question that has been thumping in my heart every time I’ve seen our closed library: “Who knows how we’ll feel about sharing books with strangers in the future?”
I can’t imagine walking around the library just because. I can’t imagine going out anymore just because I feel like getting out of the house. I can’t imagine lingering in a place or wandering around or sharing an aisle with another human. I can’t imagine picking up books that other people have touched. I can’t imagine bringing them into my house.
I don’t want to live like that. I want to be a library person because “library person” was part of my identity. Without that, I don’t feel like myself. But I also don’t know how to go back to seeing that community space as a safe space. Which makes me really miss libraries.
5 comments
I feel this so much. I love my library. My kids love our library. We are library VIPs in our small town. We (used to) spend so much time there, just wandering, taking chances on books we might like. My kids played with the games they had, did the crafts. I can’t imagine any of that right now. I miss it. I miss the friends who work there and the friends we would run into there and have impromptu play dates and chats with. I think our library is one of the things I miss the most. I can’t even picture our summer without it, but that’s the reality and it is such a gaping loss.
Since I am a librarian, I thought I’d reassure you that we are wiping down returned materials. Everything that comes in from the book drop is cleaned, usually with Lysol wipes or sprays, it’s one of the reasons we closed our book drops (we were running low on supplies.) All signs show that COVID-19 survive at most 3 days on paper so everything sits for 72 hours. I read the transcript of a webinar on sanitizing materials, and the CDC is not worried about germ transfer from reading a book. Basically, the germs cling to the paper as it’s porous, so they don’t want to jump onto you. (Unless you are a page licker. One of those people who lick their fingers to separate pages. Ewww! Stop that, it’s gross.) Even if the last borrower completely contaminated the book, sneezed and coughed all over it, by the time it makes it to the shelves, it would be safe to touch and take home. Believe me, we do not want to endanger our staff if this were not the case.
I foresee that libraries will wipe down books and other materials and hold them for 72 hours after being returned as a new standard of care. So please don’t stop checking out books or stopping by to browse out of fear when the restrictions ease.
It really worries me when I hear people saying they can’t imagine touching used books or bringing library books home or visiting us again. Keep using us, plan to use us when we reopen, because if everyone who can afford to buy new books stays away, then libraries will be closed permanently, depriving resources to those who cannot.
I totally get this. The future is hard to imagine. We have been through a global trauma and nothing will be the same. And yet. Humans adapt and cope and move forward. We always do. I think this experience has really shifted how people feel if they go out in public while sick (I know it changed me). There will also be a great deal of public shaming or straight up expulsion if people show up somewhere with symptoms. There is also new technology – UV lights, better masks and gloves. I can imagine returned books going into a quarantine period or using a UV light device on them. Shelved books presumably would be quarantined since the library was last open. I get your hesitation (and others!) I am thinking about a future where we proceed slowly with more caution. My children will not frequent the library for a long time. But I’ll be there on opening day with clean hands, a mask, kind eyes and words of gratitude for the library staff. I will get what I need. Bag everything up. Put it in my car. I will come home and wash my hands. The books will stay in the car for a day before we read them. If I really want to read it immediately, i’ll wipe it down with a clorox wipe and wash my hands. Things will take more thought and more time. But I’m still going to be a library person. I invite you too, but I get it if it is too much at the moment to consider. Virtual hugs and peace
Yeah I’m not sure when I will feel comfortable going to the library. Despite libraries supposedly using CDC guidelines to wipe down books etc….that does not reassure me. There is still so much we don’t know about this virus and things that people thought they knew a couple months ago turned out not to be true. Plus what about books that people touch, look at and then put back on the shelf? I do this all the time when picking out books for my kids. And everything I’m reading about how far a cough travels and how many virus particles are in one sneeze or cough…when my children were toddlers we would often bring them to the library just to get out of the house and have something to do because there’s a little kid toy section in our library. I can’t imagine doing that now. I feel for libraries and all other facilities and businesses that are closed right now but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to risk my life or my family’s life to keep them afloat, sorry….
Yes to all you’ve said. I’ve had a problem with fear of people (masks used to mean someone was either about to cut me open or rob me) and fear of books.
I wish to fear neither. Ever. I long for the luxury of feeling that the world is mostly a safe place. Even if that was an illusion, I liked it.