Turning a page: Libraries get ready to stir
The San Francisco Public Library is most residents’ favorite city department, according to surveys. And the pandemic is proving that old adage about absence making the heart grow fonder. We’re realizing just how essential the library is, how much we miss holding reallife books and how the department embodies our values so well.
Last year, the library went finefree and wiped out $1.57 million in overdue charges in the realization that encouraging reading is more important than nickelanddiming book borrowers. Its social workers help homeless people who frequent the libraries for someplace to be in a city with too few options. Its All Are Welcome initiative told immigrants to come inside in a country that increasingly rejects that message. Its children’s story time program includes ohsoSan Francisco readalouds by drag queens. In 2018, Library Journal named the San Francisco Public Library the best library system in the country.
In other words, it is the pride of San Francisco. In the past city survey, the libraries scored an A, better than any other city service. (Transportation ranked the lowest with a C+. If only we knew back then how much it was sadly going to plunge to new depths because of COVID19.)
But, oh, how we’ve missed
our libraries. Many families have kids who’ve read everything in the house by now, even the back of cereal boxes, and are desperate for the libraries to reopen. Sure, we can borrow ebooks, but kids are already on screens so much these days, real books with real pages to turn are a hot commodity.
Thankfully, libraries are emerging from their hibernation, and the Main Library and the Excelsior branch should be open for curbside pickup of preordered books by early August. If those go smoothly, more branches should open for curbside pickup by late August.
Other Bay Area libraries have been open for curbside pickup for many weeks. Why is it taking San Francisco so long to reopen in such a small way?
The answer will make you feel even better about our public libraries. Their librarians have made up a surprisingly large percentage of the city’s disaster service workers. According to City Librarian Michael Lambert, his staff as of July 1 comprised an eyepopping 45% of San Francisco’s disaster service workers.
Anybody hired by the city of San Francisco can be redeployed in a time of crisis, and the city has
“I’m so proud of the staff the way they’ve stepped up.”
Michael Lambert, San Francisco City Librarian
relied heavily on librarians, since all libraries have been closed since March and they otherwise had little to do.
Lambert oversees a staff of 560 people, which includes 213 librarians as well as library security, custodians and library pages who sort and shelve books. They’ve packed food at food pantries. They’ve worked at hotels for homeless people. They’ve served as contact tracers.
To some librarians’ chagrin, the city decided it couldn’t spare them, and Lambert doesn’t seem to have pushed the issue. And so libraries remained closed even though bookstores could sell books curbside in May.
“It’s felt like an eternity,” Lambert acknowledged of how long his 28 libraries have been shuttered. “But I’m so proud of the staff the way they’ve stepped up and really shown up for the city. It’s been heartwarming to witness.
“I understand the frustration some of our staff are feeling, but this is the social contract we agreed to when we entered civil service,” he continued. “I’m trying really hard to reopen library services ... but we’re still in a public health emergency, and we still have to fulfill the city’s top priorities.”
Lambert himself was deployed to a hotel for homeless people for three weeks in May and said it was “the most gratifying work” he’s performed in his career.
“Really, the highlight of every day was going room to room and serving people a hot meal for dinner,” he said. “It really hit home to me that these are people like you and me who fell on hard times.”
Jana De Brauwere, who works as a program manager in the Main Library’s business, science and technology center, has been serving as a contact tracer during the pandemic. She is fluent in English, Czech, Russian and Spanish, highdemand skills when it comes to phoning people who may have been in contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus and might not speak English.
“I’m really excited whenever the language match happens,” she said, adding she enjoys her temporary job. “The stakes are much higher — it’s public health. You really feel the impact that you’re making.”
Jen Woo, a librarian at the West Portal branch, doesn’t sound quite so thrilled with her assignment. She’s been staffing the food bank for months and loves its mission. But she said she’s eager to get back to the library as soon as it’s safe and wishes there were better communication about when and how that will happen. She said many librarians wish there was more transparency in why they’ve been deployed for so long and how long their nonlibrary jobs will last.
“I miss the community. I miss seeing the elderly patrons coming in. I miss the kids coming in with their parents. I miss story time,” she said. “I miss it all.”
So do we, Ms. Woo. So do we.
In a matter of weeks, we can start ever so slightly engaging with the libraries again. Patrons will be able to reserve books online or over the phone and pick them up outside the Main Library or the Excelsior branch from librarians in masks behind a sneeze guard. The books will be packed and ready in togo bags. The city administrator has approved those plans, meaning they can begin as soon as the library can implement them.
Lambert is starting to call 40 staff members back to run the operations — and if those go well, he wants to call more staff back to offer curbside pickup at other branches later in August. Each branch will require its own health and safety plan to be approved by the city administrator.
He’s also going to tackle operations that were basically frozen once the libraries were ordered to shut. That includes fulfilling thousands of book requests made before the library shut down and checking in all the books that were returned and never shelved. One in 5 books is out in circulation at any given time, meaning keeping up with requests and returns is a big undertaking.
Anybody who has a library book checked out from the prepandemic times can keep it until September, no questions asked. But even if you’re late returning it, nothing much will happen because of the library’s finefree policy.
So when will libraries ever return to normal and allow people to go inside to peruse the shelves, use computers, listen to story time and read?
“Wow, that is such a hard question,” Lambert said. “Getting beyond curbside pickup would require certainly an improvement in the public health emergency. I really have no idea.”
Whenever it comes, we’ll be there to celebrate.