Covid-19’s Impact on Libraries Goes Beyond Books via Wired

Covid-19’s Impact on Libraries Goes Beyond Books

@LorainPLSystem

#WiFi Hotspots

Shuttering public libraries puts a strain on communities—even if it’s the only way to keep people safe.

Wired: 3.25.2020 by Boone Ashworth

For Jennifer Pearson, the choice was difficult but clear: Shut down the library, or people could die.

“My library was filled with older people,” Pearson says. “I just wanted to go out and scream, ‘Go home. What are you doing here?’ I knew that if we didn't make that move to close the building, they would never stop coming. We were, at that point, doing more harm than good.”

Pearson is the director of the Marshall County Memorial Library in Tennessee, which shut down last Wednesday. She’s also president of the Association for Rural and Small Libraries. The ARSL, along with larger organizations like the American Library Association, has issued a statement recommending that public libraries close their doors amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Library of Congress helped lead the charge earlier this month, announcing that it would close all its facilities to the public until April and suspend library-sponsored programs until mid-May. Soon after, public library systems in major cities like New York, San Francisco, and Seattle closed as well. To date, more than 3,000 libraries across the country have followed suit.

The buildings won’t all just sit empty. In San Francisco, for instance, libraries and other public facilities have been repurposed as “emergency care facilities for children of parents on the front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak and low-income families,” according to a press release from the office of San Francisco mayor London Breed. But, as with every societal disruption wrought by the coronavirus, the closure of libraries can create ripple effects through the communities around them.

“Shutting down libraries has a tremendous impact on the communities that we serve,” says Ramiro Salazar, president of the Public Library Association and director of San Antonio Public Library. “Until they’re closed, sometimes folks don't realize how important libraries are to them.”

═════════►

Change Is Overdue

While libraries have struggled during their time in suspended animation, more hardships may come after the coronavirus pandemic runs its course. At this point, an economic recession appears all but inevitable. During economic downturns, library patronage surges, as millions more people are drawn by free and low-cost resources, job-seeking programs chief among them. According to a 2010 report by the ALA, libraries in 24 states had their funding slashed during the recession of the late 2000s. Combine a surplus of increasingly desperate people with an underfunded library staff and things can get ugly.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 10

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 14-15 yrs. Old

(Ninth to Tenth graders)