By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Wood County District Public Library plans on returning to its pre-pandemic hours the week after Labor Day.
Library Director Michael Penrod shared plans for expanding library hours with trustees at their Monday meeting.
Penrod said daytime hours will be extended during the summer. He did not present that schedule because he’s waiting for Deputy Director Michele Raine to return from leave, so he can confer with her.
He said it’d likely be an extension of daytime hours by an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. Library hours are now: Monday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. At this point, he doesn’t see the need for more evening hours, especially in summer.
This is one aspect of the library’s return to more normal operations.
Penrod reported that a survey of library staff finds the majority of employees favor keeping certain protocols, such as face coverings, plexiglass shields, cleaning of surfaces, and social distancing in place.
The staff favor “the slow and steady’ pace at least through the summer, Penrod said.
Any change in the protocols will be guided by changes in state policy.
The survey respondents gave high marks to the library’s approach to the pandemic.
Penrod said that the length of time materials are quarantined will be reduced based on the most recent guidance on how long the virus can live on surfaces. Now materials that are returned in the book drop are held for four days before being returned to circulation. That has resulted in a backlog of books in the meeting room. That will be reduced to three days initially to start reducing the backlog, and then to one day.
The library plans to hire pages to help with shelving the books.
Children’s services, he reported, is planning a host of outdoor programs this summer. Many will be on Wooster Green with others will be in city and county parks. The staff at the Children’s Place has good relations with both City Parks and Recreation and the Wood County Parks District.
Brian Paskvan, president of the board, said he felt bad about children losing social interaction that library programs provide during the pandemic. The outdoor events will help address that.
Penrod said the plans for opening up apply to the Walbridge Library as well with outdoor kids programs planned for a nearby park.
Penrod also updated the board on the library’s ongoing discussions with the city about the construction of a new city building next door as well as the library’s master plan.
Penrod noted that the two projects are at very different phases with the city building nearing the start of construction while the library’s plans still in the “dreaming” stage. Last time the library undertook a major renovation, it took eight years between identifying the need to move adult fiction closer to the entrance to a major expansion.
Of most immediate concern is the library’s drive-up book drop on Oak Street. That should be able to remain, though for some period during the construction it will be walk up only. However, the library is also discussing the possibility of moving it to the south side of the building, off Court Street.
Penrod and others in the state’s library community are also lobbying legislators to maintain the current funding formula that provides 1.7 percent of the state’s general revenues for the support of public libraries. That figure, an increase from the 1.66 percent written in law, was amended in the previous biennial budget. If the legislature does not act, the formula would revert to the lower number. The governor’s proposed budget did not have the 1.7-percent figure. However, an amendment to the House version of the budget increasing the formula has been proposed, and at the request of county library directors, State Rep. Haraz Ghanbari has signed on as a co-sponsor of that bill.
Penrod is confident of support from Ghanbari and State Sen. Theresa Gavarone. Both are library users.
