 Welcome to this episode of Talk of the Town. One of my favorite perennial things that we do, or I shouldn't say perennial, regular things that we do is to get an update on all things library here in town. I, like many, many of you, am a huge fan of the library, so I'm particularly glad to welcome the director of our libraries, Andrea and Nicolai, to let us know. Well, we're going to talk about several different things related to the library. First of all, Andrea, great to see you. Oh, so great to see you too, James. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, it's going to be fun. Speaking of, you know, the first thing I'd like to talk about, even though we're talking about an update and we'll be looking at what's, you know, coming up for people to anticipate, I can't help but ask you to talk a little bit from your perspective on something just concluded. And that is the month of March, most of it, or much of it, was devoted once again to a community read. And Arlington Reads together this year, I just found to be a particularly powerful mix of both events and the source itself. But let's hear what you, let's hear your thoughts on it. Yeah, well, I have to say, I mean, there couldn't have been a more topical subject for this year's community read and race relations and the topic of equity and the kinds of conversations that the community can and should be having about race in Arlington and in this country. And so our book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together with Cafeteria by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, offered really, it offered so much in terms of fuel for these conversations. I mean, we brought in, in addition to Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, who we'll talk about in a minute, we had so many wonderful speakers and presenters and discussions going on, a lot of, I mean, all of them virtual, of course. And just when we think that everyone has been zoomed out, we see people come out for these programs and these discussions. And I was so heartened at the turnout for the Arlington Reads together events. It was great. The last program that happened was a poetry performance by Tim Hall, who is a performance poet who teaches at Berkeley and is originally from Detroit based in Boston. And he just had such a hopeful and beautiful message of love and trusting the process. That was the subject of his presentation, trusting the process and how even when you have doubts about yourself, your approach to a topic, your approach to a project, you've got to trust the process. You've got to trust all of the sort of guidelines in place that will help you and support you in that discussion, in that process. And so going back to the Dr. Tatum event, we had over 200 people on the active Zoom, plus folks who were watching on Facebook Live. And I was blown away. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day. It was the first truly gorgeous and beautiful day of like in the 60s. And so we were a little bit concerned that the nice weather would just draw away a lot of audience, but we were just really delighted at the turnout and Dr. Tatum was so powerful. She has such a warm and positive and she's a storyteller. She has such a beautiful way of relating to the topic of race and making it relatable to other people who might not be terribly familiar with it or comfortable talking about certain aspects of it. And I think I would just encourage anyone who did not get a chance to see her presentation, to tune into ACMI and watch it. It's a little over an hour and it is time incredibly well spent. Just fast forward through my introduction. I just give a bio just seriously, just fast, fast forward through me. Get to Dr. Tatum and Dr. McNeil because of course Dr. Tatum was in conversation with Rod McNeil from he's a superintendent, assistant superintendent of the school system in Arlington. And so he and Dr. Tatum had this just wonderful, wonderful, engaging discussion. And yeah, again, encourage anybody who didn't get a chance to see it to go watch. Yeah, let me just, if you don't mind, throw my own two cents in here. And that is to say, I was so impressed with that event as with many of the others. But also with Dr. Tatum in particular because I had some experience with her and with this book in the school I taught in, 13 years ago, I think it was. And we had a tremendous experience, difficult, challenging in ways that we absolutely needed and that reverberated for a long time afterwards. But my point is just she's been doing this a long time talking about this work, this aspect of the work that she does. And obviously this is just one piece of work that she does. But she has been at it a long time and I was so impressed by her ability that you've just cited to meet people wherever they might be in terms of tuning in and trying to begin to wrestle or be somewhere along the way towards wrestling with these things. For somebody who, like I said, has been having to have the same kinds of conversations for a very long time, she remains just very kind of vital and fresh and cheerful and kind and hopeful, you know? So in general that was something that I took from much of the many of the activities around. This is not just, this is hard work that we need to do, but also a sense of hopefulness and a trust, as you mentioned around Tim Hall, in that process, in this process that we're all engaged in and need to stay with and on top of for, you know, some untold amount of time going through. Yeah. And she really conveyed that it is possible that, you know, that we are doing it. Every time we have these conversations, every time we address this challenging subject, we're helping. We're helping and we're trusting the process. And I would also say that my observation of Dr. Tatum is that her commitment is contagious and it underscores what you just said about how you, you know, you worked or you learned from her years and years ago and that stayed with you. You know, you felt a resonance, you felt a familiarity with her and her work that, you know, I think, you know, it just, it goes to show how much staying power these ideas that she's conveying have and how contagious that commitment can be. Yeah. And, and, you know, last thing from me is just she does a really great job. And I thought the conversation itself did of kind of elucidating without judgment the fact that there are, this is so many complicated layers to this. There are positives and negatives in places that you wouldn't have expected. And she navigates her audience in the book and, you know, in real life, so to speak, through that in, in so, so adroitly and, you know, again, I was just impressed anew with, with that. Anyway, certainly we should probably just keep going since both of us clearly were you know, much, much taken by and, and, you know, feel like there's so much in the, the conversations and activities that you guys presented throughout the month. But I know we have other stuff to talk about too. So you're ready to move on? I will. Yeah. That other stuff, talk about processes. Let's find out about a process that I think everybody who's listening is going to be, you know, their ears are going to be very, very much perked up for this. Yes, indeed, folks, we will be able to walk back into the library and stay there for a full 15 minutes under particular, you know, with with certain kinds of constraints. But it is great news. So first of all, thanks for sharing this with us. I, you know, it really is something I've been waiting for. And I imagine lots of other people too. So tell us how things are going to work. Sure, sure. So we know and we deeply appreciate that people, people's experience of the library, you know, it's a physical thing as well as, you know, I mean, you take away the materials, but ultimately, a lot of people miss being in the stacks and browsing and doing other things that they're accustomed to doing in the library, like making photocopies, the simple things that you rely on at the library to be able to do. So we know that 15 minutes is not a lot of time. And we know that people are going to, you know, want to spend more time. This is about supporting that experience of browsing, that experience of going through the stacks and finding what you want within the safety guidelines and the parameters that we need to work within to keep our staff and patrons safe. So the leadership team and I have been engaged in trying to figure out, you know, just how to how to how to support this next phase of library service over the last several months. And we will be launching this effective tomorrow, Friday, April 2nd. I'm not sure when this is airing. So Friday, April 2nd, you will be able to go on to the Robbins Library website. And the first link that you see under site links is going to be get a browsing pass. Click on that link and you are taken to a page where there are two options of passes to reserve. One is for the general collections, which is the first floor, second floor, third floor and the fourth floor friends book sale. And the other kind of pass and that's an individual pass, by the way. So if you reserve a general collections pass, you have to do that for each person in your party, whether it's you and your spouse, you and your partner, whatever. And then we have a family pass for the children's room, which is going to be, I know, a hot ticket. So if you're reserving a family pass, all you have to do is indicate the number of people in your party. There's also an attestation for each type of pass. So before you come to the library, you need to be able to assure us that you are not experiencing symptoms, that you haven't been in close contact with someone who's positive and that you are feeling, you know, well and that you're going to wear your mask and keep social distance within the building, which we know people are so accustomed to now, but we do have that little attestation within the reservation form system. So once you get your pass and you have to reserve it at least a day in advance, so there will be plenty of passes available. You just have to reserve a day in advance. And then when you arrive at the library, it's going to be a little bit different looking. People are accustomed to doing drop in checkout. That's going to continue. So you do not need an appointment if all you're doing is coming in and picking up your reserve materials or your grab bag. You can do that the same way that you have been all this time without an appointment. But if you do have an appointment, you're going to be all over in a line on your right. There's going to be blue arrows on the floor indicating that that's the browsing line. You're going to be greeted in a greeter table a little bit further into the lobby. And that person is just going to welcome you. It's going to make sure that you're there at your appointed time and they're going to make sure that you understand, you know, where you need to go in the library with the pass that you have. And just answer any simple questions that you may have about the experience and whatnot. We also have, of course, a lot of information on the browsing pass site about the things that you can and can't yet do in the library space. So once you're there, and by the way, you'll have 15 minutes to arrive. So if you are running a little bit late or you need to find parking, you have a little buffer within that appointment time. And so we don't want people stressing like, oh, if I'm not there right at 9 o'clock, they're not going to let me in. You've got a little buffer there. So we hope that between the helpful signage that we have in the library, the helpful staff who will be there to help guide people through our spaces if they need it, and some of the other measures that we're putting into place, people will be able to make the most of that supermarket sweep 15 minutes. So I'm having to talk about some of those other measures too. Yeah, I mean, first of all, I got to say, as a patron, really appreciative of the fact that you guys are working hard, because this sounds like a system that's going to be pretty complicated to get up and running and then maintain. And I think we'll delve into that a little bit more in a second. But to me, the simple fact is you guys had a choice of continuing to not be open until it's really 100% safe or something like that. But you're doing the harder thing, in a sense here, by allowing in a contingent way all of us to indeed access the library and get some of that magic that we are used to and rely on. So first of all, appreciation for that. But I am curious about various elements of this. One is, how will the 15 minutes work? Is this, I mean, I can't imagine that you can rely on an honor system. So especially if you're giving people a little buffer, so if somebody has a 9 o'clock appointment, let's say at 11 o'clock appointment, and they show up at 1108 and they pass into the library at 1110, does that mean that they get to 1125? And how do you figure that out? That kind of thing. That is exactly right about the honor system. We actually pride ourselves at the library in trusting people. First of all, we trust you to have a library card and use it. You could come in every day and walk away with all of our materials, and we would never know the difference. So we're very accustomed and comfortable at the library with working on the honor system. What we've also seen is that patrons are extremely respectful of one another and of the staff and of all of the rules that have gone into place to keep people safe during this time. I mean, we have seen almost 100% mask compliance and those few cases of non-mask compliance like are remedied in a minute because the person forgot or they just needed to adjust it in some way. So we are going to be trusting that people are going to be watching the clock, making sure that they keep their visits within 15 minutes. And we're not policing people. We don't like to police people anyway. I mean, we understand that if you're standing in line to check something out, you might go a little bit past your 15 minutes because you're standing in line and you need to pick up a reserve. I mean, we have allowances for that. Part of why we are basing the capacity for browsing on the step three, if I'm getting this right, the state's phase three, step two capacity rules is because we wanted to build in some comfort with regard to that capacity. So it's very important to us that people do follow the rules and abide by the guidelines that we're putting into place. But provided most of the people do the right thing, we're comfortable with it. And obviously, if we need to revisit anything about it, we'll do so, but I feel really strong in this plan, the health department reviewed the plans. And I think that it's gonna be fine. I think people are gonna want more time. That's natural, but I really think between the again, the capacity limitations and the fact that we're really emphasizing the short-term appointment, we're emphasizing no seating by putting the chairs away, literally, physically. And that's how other libraries have been supporting this as well. It's been very much kind of honor system, readers. We're probably one of the only libraries with an online reservation system. And that was actually, it was important for us to set that up because of how our door and lobby space is configured. There was no other way to kind of monitor the appointment system. So that's why that's, I'm kidding. And I'm talking about that kind of online registration system in a second. I'm so glad that you mentioned in your response that the library basically trusts its patrons. I realized as you began to speak, I thought to myself, yeah, probably why wouldn't an honor system work when without being too over the top about this, it does feel over a long period of time spending a lot of hours in libraries for myself that there are spaces that do tend to bring out the best rather than the worst in people. And I think back to your guy's decision some years ago now to stop charging fines for people returning books and other materials late. And I think a lot of people's initial reaction to that was what, how can you open that door? And yet I have checked in with you periodically since then about that. And that system seems by all accounts to be working really, really well. I know again, speaking only for myself that I might hold onto a book a day or two longer so I can finish it or something like that. But I'm going to be mindful of getting that back because I know that somebody is very possibly waiting or going to find it browsing and want it, et cetera. I'm sure that's how everybody else feels and operates. And so I understand the confidence with which you are embarking on this and I'm really glad to hear that. But you were just mentioning that people have an opportunity and will need to really make some reservations online. Explain how that will work. Sure, and that's not the only option. We understand that not everyone has access to the internet and not even everyone has access to telephones for that matter. So there are a couple of other ways that you can get an appointment for browsing. You can call our hotline and you can also if you don't have access to a computer or a phone you can just go through to our circulation counter and the staff there can make an appointment for you for the next day or for the future. So we're accommodating, trying to build in some equity that way. But as far as you had asked about reserving a pass, right? I actually, I was thinking about the mobile checkout option. Oh, yes. I apologize. Mobile checkout, yes, yes. I misspoke, but that's what I wanted. No, that's okay. That's okay. I'm glad you misspoke. It gave me an opportunity to offer the other options available to those who want to reserve a pass. But mobile checkout, thank you for raising mobile checkout. So in your Minuteman app, which is anyone can download for free through your favorite app store. You can get the Minuteman Library Network app. And on that app, when you'll load in your library card number and in the my account section, which is this little person section, says view my record. Oops, nope. Sorry. I went too far into the app in the first place. So under my account, you have this option here. It's now, it's called mobile checkout. And right in the bottom on the left. Yeah, it might be in a different position on people's screens depending on how their app displays. But once you click mobile checkout, you get this little barcode reader. You can't really see it that well because I'm holding it up to another screen, but you get a barcode reader and you can check out anything that has a barcode in the library on the spot. So you can avoid all the lines. You can avoid the self checkout machine by using your mobile checkout app where you are standing in the library. So you pick up a book from the shelf, you see that it has a barcode, you pull up your app, you scan the barcode and it can't be the ISBN. So don't try to scan the ISBN. That's for the retail environment. So you'll look for the Robin's Library barcode and you'll scan that and the item will be checked out to you right then and there. And it works not only for books and DVDs and any other types of materials. It also works for our Library of Things material or things, I should say. It works if you wanna walk up and check out even one of the Chromebooks that we have in our Library of Things right now. You can walk up to the shelf where we have all the Chromebooks lined up and check out a Chromebook for yourself. So it's really, it's a fabulous convenience for this time especially. And it was developed at the same time that the Contactless Pickup app was developed for libraries. So Minuteman works with the company to develop these new initiatives to help support whatever use the library is getting during COVID and this was one of the developments that came about as a result of the pandemic but also it's just a great thing to have even beyond the pandemic too. So we're so excited about mobile checkout. We hope you'll try it and we'll be there. Sorry, I missed the last thing you said there. I'm too busy checking out a book here. You don't have a book. I know you're at your house, James. So yeah. That, I mean, I have to say, as you just said, well beyond the pandemic that is a great little innovation for those of us who are, again, comfortable. I'm very used to now over the course of time using the mobile app for any number of things in terms of keeping track of what I've got, where it's at, et cetera. And so having that option now at my fingertips literally, I'm excited. That's great. It feels like magic when you do it for the first time. You're just like, is it really mine now? Can I really just walk out? I mean, even I feel that way when I'm, I've been using it for a couple of months now, but it really does feel empowering. And then when you go to my account in the app, there's the book that you just checked out. And you still get the reminders the same way that you do if you check out with a staff member. And we know, obviously, like this isn't, this mobile checkout does not replace our staff. I wanna emphasize that we have, there are a lot of reasons that you still need to go to the checkout point at our circulation desk, not least of all, because you have a hold to check out or a grab bag on reserve to check out. There are lots of things you need to do in person at the counter. Get a library card, for example, a physical card. So yeah, I mean, all the things that you just said have something in common, and that is that they are physical objects. How does the mobile checkout work with electronic materials? Well, if you're using electronic materials, you're likely doing it through Libby, which is a totally separate app on your phone. So you'll still reserve your digital books, your downloadable books and your downloadable audio books in the same way that you do now. Great, thanks for that clarification. One other thing I know I wanna ask you about, and that is, I've noticed from coming into the library for the contact, more or less contactless pickup, and now the modified pickup system over the last few months, that you have needed to be using the reading room, one of the most exquisite spaces in town, to, for staff operations, basically. I assume you're gonna have to continue to do that and that that is not gonna be a space that is available for browsers in their 15 minutes. That's true. We still have, we have to use the reading room to support socially distanced staff workstations. The circulation staff is our largest department at the library, and so it's a real beehive of activity. We need to spread people out. So we're using the circulation office that we of course normally have and then we have five socially distanced workstations in that reading room, including the two checkout points. So we're adding a checkout point. So anyway, it'll still be a little while before you can lounge in the reading room with your favorite book. But we know that people also just feel excited to just be back in the space and see the room. Even just seeing it is a nice thing for a lot of people. We know it's not the same. I'm not trying to introduce a downer into the conversation. I promise. I just wanted to clarify for myself and for others that that's the case. Makes a lot of sense, of course. But I know that I'm not the only one for whom the reading room in particular is just, it's a bit of a magical space. It's just, there's something about it. And so that's fine. We can afford to be patient for a while longer, especially again in acknowledgement of the fact of all the efforts you have made in order to be able to offer this opportunity to Arlington's reading public. Happy to do so. And I would be remiss if I did not mention Fox as well. I need to talk about Fox for a moment. We know that Fox Library users are very eager to get back into Fox as well. We're also eager to support the Fox and Robbins shop in the little, in the Fox Library space. But we have to keep Fox closed a little bit longer. Not least of all because we have Fox staff actually working at Robbins to support everything that we're doing at Robbins in the children's room and elsewhere. So we need to hold on to that staff for a while longer due to some shortages that we have experienced. And yet, and it also comes down to how we support both spaces in terms of the level of cleaning that needs to happen. There are a lot of considerations that go into supporting a public facility during COVID and we don't have the ability to support both facilities during this time being open to the same level. We always like to have a consistency of service between Robbins and Fox as much as we can. And so those are some of the reasons why Fox is gonna remain closed a little while longer. Well, you said a little bit earlier, whoa. You said a little bit earlier that you trust us and we certainly trust you and your judgment. So when Fox is open, we will celebrate that of course but we need to just kind of accept what progress has been made and it's clear progress. And also with one more note of thanks and appreciation for the fact that the library right from the get go with this in this pandemic to the central place in people's quality of life here in this town and has managed to adapt in highly successful ways to the constraints of the pandemic and still provide a lot of what you have always done for the community. So thanks for that. Well, thank you, James. We have a lot more road ahead of us but we're happy to be where we're able to be right now. Yeah, let's celebrate for a minute and then anticipate more work down the road, as you said. We will certainly be here to be a receptive, interested, engaged audience around every new step that you guys take. We will talk to you again soon but thanks so much for sharing this exciting news and also for revisiting what was a really successful community read this year at Arlington Meads Together that I think many people will remember and take forward with them. We hope so and thank you to ACMI for helping produce some of those programs. We're very grateful. Thank you to do so from our end. It's a great thing to be involved with. All right, that will wrap it up for today. I have been speaking to Andrea Nicolai who is the director of our libraries, Robins and Fox here in town. And I will see you, Andrea. I hope up in your office I'll wave when I come in and hopefully many of you out there in the audience as well as we begin to once again inhabit the space that we so love in our library. So for this library update, talk of the town, I'm James Milan. Thanks Andrea and thank you. We'll see you next time.