Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By CHARITY SMITH
MERCER, Wis. — The Mercer Library will reopen on Monday, following a prolonged closure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s a little strange so we’ve done as much research as we can,” said library director Teresa Schmidt on opening the library with COVID-19 precautions. “We’ve made some changes to the library that we hope will keep everybody safe.”
Library visitors are asked to enter through the reading room door and return books in the book drop. Only 10 visitors will be permitted in the library at a time and they are asked to limit their time in the library. Visitors are expected to wear a mask, use good “hand hygiene,” and limit the size of their group to two people or less. The library will provide face masks and hand sanitizer for public use.
“It’s such an uncertain time that it is hard to know exactly what to do, but we are just trying our best to do the logical things and the things that seem like they have evidence behind them,” Schmidt said.
Some of the library’s computers have been disabled, safe distances have been marked around the circulation desk, and some seating has been removed to allow for the required 6-feet social distancing measures between library patrons.
Schmidt said most of the in-person programing has been canceled. However, they do have plans to try some outdoor programing for adults on the library’s property.
“We normally do our grown-up story hour in a tavern. We decided that we are not quite prepared to go back to an indoor space like that, so we might try doing grown-up story hour on the lawn and see how that goes,” Schmidt said. “We don’t have any children’s programing scheduled because it’s kinda hard to encourage kids to maintain safe distances and expect them to wear masks and things like that. With grownups we can expect a little bit more control.”
She said that the library is offering a lot more online programing, including an online reading challenge for both kids and adults.
“We’re just trying different things to see if we can keep people engaged. Keep them reading. Help keep the community entertained and just seeing what we can do to serve people while we can’t invite them to stay and gather at the library like we normally do,” she said.
According to Schmidt they are taking a gradual approach to opening as they don’t know what summer is going to bring. She said that anything that one can check out from the library will be available again when they open on Monday. The library has continued and will continue to purchase new and bestselling books and movies for patrons to borrow.
“It’s going to be a little strange after being closed for so long. I don’t think the library has been closed for this long since this location opened in 1997. We’ve never been closed for three months like this,” she said. “So it’s been an unusual experience overall. We are happy to get back and have people in the library again.”
More picnic tables have been set outside in anticipation of the public using the library’s Wi-Fi. A grant helped the library purchase signal boosters. Curbside service is also available.
