CARIBOU, Maine — The Caribou Public Library has been open since July, with strict social distancing guidelines in place. The facility serves the public not only in person, but also by offering curbside pickup and activities such as reading time that are recorded and uploaded to the facility’s new YouTube channel.
Library Director Hope Shafer said that Maine libraries have to follow three checklists according to the governor’s office in order to stay open — they need to follow the same guidelines for businesses and public spaces in addition to a third checklist that is specific to libraries.
Those additional requirements include a rule that patrons only visit the facility for 30 minutes, and that books need to be quarantined once returned. All visitors are required to use hand sanitizer upon entering the building, allowing them to safely touch books while in the building.
“It’s worked remarkably well,” Shafer said. “People can also come in and request things if they want, either by calling, through email or even fax. We still have some patrons who don’t want to come through the doors yet, and for them we can put books they’ve requested on a table outside the door.”
She said the library has also become a spot for local students who have limited internet access to check in on their classes, submit lessons or attend a brief zoom meeting within the half hour time limit.
Shafer said the public reception has been “wonderful,” but that there were a few patrons in the beginning who did not want to follow the rules. She said it was a temporary situation, adding that they came around once they understood that complying with the governor’s directives was the only way to keep the facility open.
“People wanted us to open as badly as we wanted to open,” she said. “We’ve had nothing but encouragement.”
And even before the library opened in July, Children’s Librarian Erin Albers has been recording videos of book readings and posting them to the facility’s social media page in order to make up for what was once a regular reading event.
She has now read close to 25 chapter books and several picture books, and the videos were recently moved to a newly created YouTube channel.
Albers began on March 25 by reading picture books, and soon added chapter books to the rotation.
“I was a little nervous in the beginning,” she said. “I was much more rigid, because I wanted to make sure everything was just right, but I’ve since relaxed a lot more. It’s actually kind of embarrassing when I look back at some of those earlier videos.”
Albers said the videos have reached a far larger audience than she would normally receive at the library, and that she has relatives in other parts of the country who watch. A school in Arkansas even shared some of her videos last spring.
“Several kids are watching that normally would have come to the program before COVID-19 was a part of our lives,” she said. “But other kids I’ve never met are also watching, and it’s kind of fun because otherwise we never would have been able to reach them.”
And while she enjoys making the videos, Albers said she absolutely misses reading books in person.
“It’s much easier to be here in person and have a connection with the kids, and it’s fun when I see them in the community,” she said, adding that they are usually amazed to discover that she exists beyond the walls of the library.
Albers records six storytime videos a week, five from a chapter book and one picture book video. Because she works part time, she typically records them before the library opens and then schedules them to post throughout the week.
Albers said it is “definitely a possibility” that she will continue to record videos after the pandemic.
For information about the library and its offerings during the pandemic, Shafer recommended visiting the facility’s official website.
“We’re open, we’re still here for our community, and we want to help in any way we can,” Shafer said.
