Libraries likely to 'quarantine' return
Sites may ease back into serving patrons with safeguards June 1.
COLUMBUS — While retailers, bars, restaurants and barbers are reopening this month, Ohio public libraries are makingplans to reopen for staff and patrons with safeguards.
“We’ve been talking about that since we closed,” said Dayton Metro Library Director Tim Kambitsch. Library leaders statewide and locally have been discussing plans and best practices regularly for weeks.
Furloughed staff will be brought back in small groups to go over new safety and cleaning protocols and prepare to begin a curbside materials pick-up service sometime around June 1, he said. But opening the doors for 400,000 patrons and returning to normal doesn’t seem possible until a coronavirus vaccine is available, Kambitsch said.
The Ohio Library Council earlier this month released guidance and protocols to its members.
Recommended best practices include limiting the number of patrons in certain areas, removing
children’s toys and furniture, stepping up cleaning, consider having patrons wear masks or come by appoint- ment only, increasing curb- side pick up services and closing once a week for deep cleaning.
Libraries may also want to “quarantine” returned materi- als for three to four days before putting them out for use, the council said. Researchers at Columbus-based Battelle Memorial are conducting a study on how long the coro- navirus can live on books, magazines, newspapers and other library materials.
“This is a long procedure,” said Battelle spokesman T.R. Massey. “Scientific studies are, as you know, painstak- ingly planned so the results are reliable. We have only completed the literature search at this time, and we have now gotten some materials from the Columbus Public Library for testing.”
Kambitsch said Dayton Metro Library will stash returned materials in holding tubs for three days.
While Ohio is reopening swaths of t he economy, the coronavirus pandemic remains a threat. The Health Policy Institute of Ohio reported that COVID-19 deaths in Ohio have already surpassed the number of motor vehicle crash deaths for all of 2018, and it’s likely that the coronavirus will cause more deaths than many other lead- ing causes in 2020.
Kambitsch said he recognizes that many Ohioans, including K-12 students, rely on public libraries to access the internet. Library leaders are discussing the best and safest way to provide that service once branches re-open, he said.
He noted that Dayton Metro Library will ask patrons to wear masks or facial coverings as a means of protecting library staff members. Those who fail to do so will not be given service, he said.
On top of the health crisis, public libraries are bracing for funding cuts as state tax revenues take a dive. Money that flows to the state Public Library Fund is tied to how much money is in the state’s general revenue fund. Kambitsch said the allocation for May from the state was nearly 39% below anticipated levels.
“I’m no economist but I suspect that isn’t the worst that we’ll see,” he said.
Contact this reporter at 614-224-1624 or email Laura.Bischoff@coxinc.com.
Heidi Van Roekel makes instructional art videos for YouTube when coronavirus news overwhelms her. Bill Webb takes his boat out. Stacy Mitchell searches her TV for something anything to make her laugh. Paradoxically, Kevin Reed, a software designer from Kenmore, Washington, has binged “The Walking Dead” after turning off the news. He’d rather watch fake, flesh-eating zombies than a real-life pandemic.
It’s no surprise that news outlets are in demand with a story that directly affects so many people, whether they’ve gotten sick, lost jobs or are locked down at home. A Pew Research Center survey taken the third week of April found that 88% of Americans said they were follow- ing coronavirus news either very or fairly closely.
Yet that takes a toll. Pew also found that 71% of Amer- icans said that they need to take breaks from the news. To watch something else. To do something else. To breathe a little.
“A week and a half ago I just had to throttle it down,” said Webb, a writer and con- sultant who lives in Sarasota, Florida. “I think you get overwhelmed by it. You’re sitting in your house and there’s nothing you can do about things.”
Mitchell, a consultant in human resources from Dayton, Ohio, said she watches the “Today” show in the morning, the network evening news and tries to catch her state’s governor, Mike DeWine, at least at the beginning of his regular briefings. But she hit a wall.
“It was just COVID-19 overload,” Mitchell said. “I was very anxious. I had a fullblown anxiety attack and I decided that I was not going to watch more of that stuff.”
Science supports them. Roxane Cohen Silver, Dana Rose Garfin and E. Alison Holman, researchers at the University of California at Irvine who have been studying the affect of prolonged media exposure to bad news following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, wrote an article for Health Psychology magazine in February — before coronavirus was even on the radar for many Americans — warning of this effect.
People who watch too much can have nightmares, feelings of anxiety and symp- toms of post-traumatic stress disorder, Silver said. In the long run, they’re more likely to report cardiovascular disorders.
Some people who con- sumed a heavy diet of news about the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 were actually more stressed out than peo- ple on the scene, the researchers found.
“The news is distressing,” Silver said. “There are not many uplifting stories. It’s the repetitive bad news that is so draining.”
The pandemic story is particularly difficult because it’s not a single event that fades with time. There’s no telling how long it will go on. Because of unemployment and stay- at-home orders, more people have time to follow it.
That’s precisely what is hap- pening with Jose Moreno of San Antonio, Texas, a care- taker for his elderly mother. The news makes him over- think, he said.
“When I leave the house, I’m wondering, ‘Am I doing something that I shouldn’t be doing?’ It’s a lot of stress,” he said.
Some news organizations recognize the impact of a steady diet of sobering news and have sought ways to offer relief.
CBS News reporter Steve Hartman, with his regular “On the Road” series grounded, is “teaching” an online class in kindness. On the other side of the world, the Sydney Morning Herald and other Australian newspapers hunt for stories to fit their “Good News Initiative.”
During a meeting with fellow editors at The Associated Press one morning in March, running down a particularly distressing list of the day’s stories, Sally Stapleton offered some light in the dark clouds.
She promoted a story about a homebound woman in Nor- way who asked people on Facebook to send birthday greetings to her children, and people all over the world did. A college student sent home to New York after classes were suspended organized 1,300 volunteers in three days to shop and make deliveries for shut-ins.
The stories got such a posi- tive reaction that “One Good Thing” is now a daily feature. AP journalists all over the world compete to have a story included.
“I just think it’s news,” said Stapleton, global religion edi- tor. “These stories are everywhere, all the time. Mostly we ignore them. This is not a time to ignore them.”
Fox News has similarly collected more than 700 tele- vision and online stories showing resiliency under the “America Together” banner. The featured articles have received more than 25 mil- lion page views.
“If you’re in a position to spread these stories that warm the heart at a time when there is uncertainty, sadness and fear, I think it’s our obliga- tion to do so,” said Fox News anchor Dana Perino.
Even people who need to step away from the tough news recognize that it’s essen- tial.
Lucretia King, a private tutor from San Joaquin County in California, has lost her job since the outbreak began. But her husband and son both work, so she follows the news and texts them if there’s anything they need to know urgently.
UCal-Irvine’s Silver stays informed by reading online news sites in the morning and evening, and gets notifications during the day. She said she watches no television.
She doesn’t expect many others will avoid TV altogether — her husband and son cer- tainly don’t — but recom- mends against keeping the TV or news radio on con- stantly in the background.