Who can it be knocking at my door? Make no sound, tip-toe across the floor If he hears, he'll knock all day. I'll be trapped and here I'll have to stay I've done no harm, I keep to myself. There's nothing wrong with my state of mental health.

 Getting ready to open the library for fall semester.

For over a year now I have sat and looked at an empty library. With the likelihood that we will be open for some of the days during summer session, we have to get the library ready for students. During this time I have ripped down old signage (and dumped it at the reference desk), removed old flyers and school marketing stuff (and dumped it at the reference desk) and put the old display materials at the reference desk. Yeah, it is pretty messy at the reference desk. Or it WAS we are getting a new reference desk that is still in the box as I type this blog.

We had a soft summer semester open of the library and it was pretty successful.

I also went to my first in-person professional development workshop in over a year, it was nice. I missed few things just trying to hear. Mask speaking is totally a thing. I find that I sometimes over enunciate. I hope that doesn't come off as jerky.  I usually do it when I am having issues hearing them.

I am nervous about opening and think it is necessary that we are open for students. 

It seems like I have been on 100 calls about opening whether it has to do with my work or my kid's school and some questions that are asked just can't be answered and there can not be 100% guarantees about anything.

There are variants. Personal comfort levels. And of course county, campus, district and state mandates, suggestions, and whatevers to deal with...it is exhausting. 

The library is open. We are doing the best we can to keep everyone safe and to provide a place for student's to study.

Who gets to say? Who gets the work and who gets to play? I was always told at school- everybody should get the same.

 So we are a year into the pandemic and it looks like the library I work at is going for a soft opening over the summer. 

Currently, we have limited in-person services, I mean really limited. 

There are funds to get PPE, barriers, and hopefully some additional staffing. All of our student workers and hourly folks were let go sometime last year, so our entire permanent staff equals 5 people. So we can't be open for more than a couple of hours. 

So many things to consider. 

Capacity.

Cleaning Protocol.

How much can students do in the library? Browsing? Printing? Viewing films?

Plus, we need to be flexible. If there is a surge we will have to shut down. If we are allowed to really open up then we have to adjust on a dime. 

I think that the isolation of working from your couch, bed, or kitchen table has taken a toll on people in so many different ways...

Media- I know that I look at news sites a lot more than I used to since the pandemic. The specu-news really gets to be a lot too. Then of course there are social media platforms and news reporting about social media and insurrection, hate crimes against black, brown, and Asian people. So. Much. Hate.

Distrust in everything. EVERYTHING.  

The dialogue we have in our library has been constant. I think us being together has helped. We are out of house and psyche doing what we do. Helping students, faculty and staff. 

In the summer we will work out some kinks, see what everyone is comfortable with and how much extra support we need outside the library. We are very small staff (our hourly folks are gone because of the pandemic) so the expectation can't be that we can handle everything. I think assessing at the end of the summer and tweaking plans will help.

The fall semester is going to be a wild ride, I think. 

The library will be ready.