2021-03-26 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Volume 8, Issue 1
Featured Story
It isn’t easy being Green
This classic Kermit the Frog song was introduced to the world in the first season of Sesame Street in 1970. I feel this song now more than ever, it’s an American staple that takes on new significance. Kermit reminds us: “green can be big, like a mountain, or important, like a river, or tall like a tree.” In the end, he decides that he’s happy to be green — “it’s beautiful, and I think it’s what I want to be.”
As Teton County considers its move into the COVID GREEN health level, the library has had many discussions on what it means for our library to be green. We follow ILA and ALA guidelines and then ask: Doors open? Ventilation? Quarantine books? Limit patrons in the library? We go in circles on how to keep patrons and staff safe and still provide services that patrons desperately need. The library recently added a new service: helping patrons with COVID appointments. So our library continues to be all we can for our communities, stretching our library legs. In the recent article Where Are We-The Latest on Library Reopening Strategies covid-19, by the Library journal they discuss the same frustrations we all have, whether we are public, school, or educational libraries.
Never in my 30 years of working in public libraries did I believe we could ever not let people in the buildings for 10 months, says Lisa Rosenblum, executive director of King County Public Library (KCPL) in Washington. But we managed to support our staff and the public and create new models of service. While the building is closed, the library provides curbside services, digital content, and targeted programming to address COVID-related topics such as finding financial assistance and help with job searches.
So we pivoted with programmings, virtual offerings, and curbside services. We rearranged budgets and staff. And then we ask what now? The LJ answers those questions.
What will we keep? And what will we learn?
We move forward. Georgia Lomax, the executive director of the Pierce County library system, said it perfectly.
This is an opportunity for us to reinforce that libraries and their services are bigger than their buildings, Our buildings, like books, are still just one of the tools we use to serve our communities.
The library will strive to be all we need to be for our cities, towns and little villages.
Kermit knows being green is “a frog’s poignant realization of his own dignity and worth.” So we can be perfectly green for our community, and that is perfectly enough.
– Rasheil Stanger
Fail Forward
We’ve all been there. You pour your heart into a program, and no one shows up. You try something new, and you fall on your face. Sound familiar? Fail Forward is the place to share your failures, and give you the opportunity to share what you learned from them. Did you promote your program in a different way after no one showed up? Maybe you took a new approach to the new thing you were excited about? Awesome! Share your story via our online form so others can learn, and realize that failure is often part of the process.
Mask Blunder
Please put on a mask when in the building.
It’s something we say everyday. Several times a day.
We were instructed to tell people to put a mask on when they are in the building. It’s our policy. We’re enforcing it. (And we’ve had very few cases of COVID, I might add.) We didn’t give specifics about what is a mask or not except that it needed to comply with CDC guidelines…which sometimes feel as if they are constantly changing. We also told patrons that they could wear face shields too if a mask was too constricting.
I saw a woman walking around the library without a mask and approached her to ask if she would grab a mask from the circulation desk. She turned around and looked at me .
It was almost as if she *was* laughing at me and saying
Ha! I fooled you!
Oh, I said. I didn’t realize where did you get that?! I want one!
I felt like my face was burning, I was so embarrassed. Luckily my blush was hidden behind my purple cloth mask and she couldn’t tell.
I’m not so quick to run people down anymore to tell them to put on a mask. I look first to see if they are wearing a transparent one first. However, a couple of masks have slipped by me where I’ve had to do a double-take.
There are some interesting interpretations of masks out there
– Vanessa Thiele
Crush Corner
Is there a library you follow on social media who is always doing new and exciting things? How about a blog you follow that inspires you? What about a new idea, book, or resource that you want to share? Library Crush Corner is a place for those working in Idaho libraries to share what inspires them, and who or what they’re crushing on… in a professional sense. Share your story via our online form so we can publish it in a future issue!
Payette Library
Payette Public Library ran a Winter Reading Program this year. The program ran from December 15th February 16th. There was both an Adult and Children’s contest. What a great idea to continue the love of reading through the holiday season!
– Mike Sloan
SPLAT explores the ever-evolving library world and supports library folks as they adapt to meet the needs of their communities. Library folk throughout the state of Idaho volunteer to serve on the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT). Learn more about SPLAT at splat.lili.org
SPLAT is brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LS-246156-OLS-20). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.