Elsie Quirk Library is a little bit lonely without our community bustling in and out with questions, stories, greetings, humor, and humanity. But we hold our patrons in our minds as we work hard to serve the public in new ways during this unusual time. If you are wondering what we are doing behind our closed doors, let me tell you! There is no typical day, but for a broad picture, I’ll share our Thursday of this week.
We had various staff members working on making masks for county workers, with an exciting new supply of donated batik fabric in gorgeous purples and watery blues and mysterious dark greens.
Two staff members continued our cleaning efforts, carefully and thoroughly clean all of the shelves in the teen section—we are working diligently to make sure that when we can safely welcome patrons back in, your library is sparkly clean and scrupulously sanitary.
Our remarkable circulation staff made phone calls to patrons to check-in and to let them know they could be watching a movie on Hoopla, reading a magazine on Flipster, or getting swept up in a mystery, lost in a romance, or enriched by a biography with an e-book or e-audio, all thanks to their library card.
We also spent time making sure reemployment forms, available outside the library’s front doors, were well stocked in English and Spanish; and a staff member made the daily run to drop off returned reemployment forms at FedEx so that they will get to Tallahassee as quickly as possible.
All of us spent time designing virtual programming, and stretching our imaginations to generate initiatives that expand how we serve the public through this stressful time. We look forward to rolling out those plans in the coming weeks.
Our reference staff spent time on the phone and online, patiently and kindly helping patrons get information, access technology, and figure out how to use Zoom. We are available for tech help by phone Monday through Friday, 10-5 at 861-1209.
We worked on outreach to help vulnerable populations, who may be feeling very isolated, access help; we coordinated with community partners to get mask donated by local quilters to people who need them; and we found some time for a laugh break here and there because we are keeping up our good humor in anticipation of once again sharing it generously and raucously with one and all who walk through our doors.
