At our regular meeting March 10, members heard from Crete Public Library Director Joy Stevenson, who shared how library services were modified in the last year, due to COVID precautions and building shutdowns.

 

Joy explained the new library building opened at the end of January 2020, but had to close to visitors in mid March 2020 when city buildings closed to in-person access by the public. While City Hall is equipped with a drive-thru to conduct much of the utility customer business, the new library building was designed with a drive-up window in addition to the book drop slots on the south side of the building at 15th and Forest. Joy said the library never stopped serving patrons when they were able to reserve materials online or by phone and pick up at the window. When the library was able to open for limited visitors with modified services, activities like the annual Summer Reading program and Preschool Story Time were conducted virtually and story time is currently done via pre-recorded video on the library's Facebook Page.

 

The library also had access to study information from an organization than supports libraries, museums and archives, which helped staff determine the best way to disinfect and 'quarantine' returned library books before putting them back in the general collection. The library created a quarantine area where returned books stay for a minimum of three days.

 

The city and library were able to plan and announce a re-opening of city buildings this week (March 24) due to decreases in local cases. The library will open to 25 visitors at a time and will begin taking reservations for the meeting and study rooms.

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