WINTER 2021 The Community’s Living Room Since mid-March, when the COVID-19 pandemic set in, the Cedar Falls Public Library staff have been working to discover and develop ways to serve our community safely. To that end, during the time that many City staff were working from home in March and April, the CFPL staff drafted a plan for providing library services and programs during the pandemic to balance the need for access to the vast array of library services, while at the same time minimize the risk to patrons and staff. Pre-pandemic, your library was a place to gather in person with others at library programs, informally in the reading nooks located throughout the library, or visit with neighbors as you browsed collections. It was a place for children to play together and get early literacy experiences that contribute to a lifetime of reading proficiency and academic success, as well as to offset the summer reading slide with the widely accessible and very popular summer reading program. Currently, part of the library lobby serves as a staging area for hundreds of holds and maker/craft kits for curbside pickup, the Co-Lab makerspace has been converted into a broadcasting studio for story times and other virtual youth programs, youth staff are assisting families with children for remote learning, and reference librarians are using a new chat service to assist patrons with information queries. Unfortunately, the need for social distancing is often at odds with the idea of the CFPL as a public gathering place, which is one of our core functions. Mayor Green has referred to CFPL as “the community’s living room.” It pains us to have to try to accomplish that virtually right now, rather than in person and face to face. Although we have had to change the way we do business to keep our patrons and staff safe, we are doing everything we can to continue to provide you with the highest level of access possible. At the time of this writing, Black Hawk County is still in the high risk zone for the transmission of COVID-19, which is why the library is currently providing curbside pickup of materials, and other services and programs virtually. When Black Hawk County is out
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of the high-risk zone again for two weeks, our doors will open again for newly extended browsing hours. Then, each time our county’s risk level moves into a lower category, we will expand our offerings further. Finally, when our county reaches the ultimate milestone of no new COVID-19 cases for two weeks, we will be able to resume business as usual, and once again be the community’s living room as we once were, and as we so very much want to be!