THUNDER BAY – Ontario libraries can open for pickup and delivery service as of Tuesday, but the Thunder Bay Public Library says it’s not quite ready to begin offering services, citing concerns over staff and patron safety due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chief Librarian and CEO John Pateman said the institution hadn’t received any warning libraries would be allowed to start offering services until Premier Doug Ford’s announcement on Thursday.
“We were slightly taken by surprise,” he said. “We were a bit wrong-footed when there was this announcement that we could basically start offering some services, even if it’s just curbside, from next Tuesday.”
Other Ontario libraries have made similar statements.
Pateman said library staff are developing a seven-stage reopening plan that will begin with opening book drops so patrons can return materials and move on to curbside pickup service, followed by opening limited areas of the library to the public, with restrictions on the number of people allowed in at one time.
Some staff will return to library buildings to begin preparing for those steps on Tuesday, but Pateman said it's still too early to say when any level of service would resume. The library is still working on protocols for safe handling of material, staff training, and physical adjustments to its buildings, he explained.
“We want to get back into the workplace and get things back to the new normal – the old normal doesn’t work now – but we want to take a very safe and slow approach,” Pateman said. “We want to get it right, and safety’s our watchword. We have to retrain our workforce in terms of how the new library services are going to work.”
It could be some time before the library invites its full staff complement back to work due to physical distancing concerns, said Pateman. In the meantime, the TBPL’s professional librarians have continued working from home, largely focused on beefing up and promoting the library’s online offerings.
Uptake on those virtual services, including ebooks, audiobooks, and magazine and newspaper archives, has grown during the pandemic, said Pateman. The library is also facilitating free access to services like genealogy research and the UK National Theatre collection.
