The closure of the library in the last four-five months due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic was heartening. The library is not only considered as an essential place for reading and learning but also a place of social engagement, collaboration, and cooperation. The closure of libraries impacts severely on the avid user for whom the library and the library space were an integral part of their learning. But now the situation is changing, and many countries curb the menace of COVID 19 to a specific limit if not zero cases. There is a sign of control of the virus, and these bring hope to the library authorities to reopening up the library. The opening of libraries needs many proper steps and guidelines. The librarian and institute director need to lay down adequate guidelines and instructions to open the library to the user.
For staff:
- Compulsory Face Mask
- In addition to the face masks, those people deal with stack arrangement needs to wear hand glove.
- Follow 2 meter or 6ft distance.
- Wash your hands frequently and thoroughly
Stack Area:
- Not allow the user to touch the book if they are not in the plan to borrow it
- Also, suggest user request the book and library staff fetch it and keep in the circulation
- While bringing or arranging books in the stack, the staff should wear hand gloves.
Hygiene:
- Hand sanitizer needs to place in the many commonplaces like entrance, reading area, and stack area and the cyber lab.
- Provision for bin and tissue paper recommended one is the pedal bin
- Need more cleaning staff and also frequent cleaning of areas like toilet, circulation desk, etc.
For User:
- Facemasks should make compulsory for any user who wants to access the library; similarly, they need to confirm that they do not have any symptom of COVID 19
Toilet Usage:
- Separate toilet for staff and user
- Regular cleaning schedule for toilet
Encouraging to use of RFID Kiosk:
- Encourage user to use the self-service machine-like RFID terminal for self-issue and return, book pickup and drop facility, if the library has.
Fumigation and Sanitation:
- Fumigation and sanitization minimum once in a week for the whole library
Library Space:
- Rearrangement of space adheres to 2m distance norms.
Cyberlab:
- Minimize the number of computers for student use.
- Cleaning of keyboard and mouse in every three hours
Returned books:
- The books need to keep a minimum of 2 days for quarantined.
References
https://read.alia.org.au/australian-libraries-responding-covid-19-checklist-reopening-libraries
Official guidelines for reopening of the Danish libraries
/http://www.ala.org/advocacy/planning-reopening-resources
Recommendation to visit the IFLA site
