 To ask a question today, please use the Q&A function within Zoom. You can also use the Zoom raise hand function where we can invite you into the room to ask your question or press star nine if you're joining us from a telephone. We do ask that you introduce yourself before coming into the room and asking your question. So today I want to welcome library director Sharon Sherry to the chat, as well as Amherstown manager Paul Bachman. It's nice to see you both. So before we launch into Q&A, are there any general updates that you'd like to share? Paul? Yeah, there's a couple things. One is last week we put out some picnic tables and places to eat on boltwood walk and these are probably about 10 tables there, socially distanced and you can get take out from any restaurant downtown take it over there and eat with your family or whoever you're eating with. This week you'll be seeing us doing some adjustments to the public way, for instance, right across from the library at Amherst coffee, there are two parking spaces in front of Amherst coffee. We're taking those two parking spaces away and making that a new sidewalk so that Amherst coffee can put outdoor tables in front of the shop and along the side of the building. So they'll be able to provide table service to people on Amity Street at their location. In addition to that, we'll be lopping off a large section of North Pleasant Street, ranging from Main Street down to basically Bistro 63. And many of the restaurants in that stretch will be able to move their tables out into the roadway to be able to provide table service there. We're providing a couple of some space for Antonios to have some outdoor seating so they can take out and people can have their slice of pizza just outside instead of inside like the people often would do at Antonios. So those are all very positive developments, you know, large credit to our inspection services and to our DPW for making that happen. DPW has been downtown power washing all the sidewalks and doing things like that. And I know I'm talking longer than I normally do. But the other thing I wanted to mention is that we have staff up at Puffer's Pond today ironing out some of the details in terms of making sure that Puffer's Pond is able to be open. And people can utilize it using, again, socially distancing methods. We will have staff there every day from 10 to 6 managing Puffer's Pond for the rest of the summer. And we'll have some information coming out a little bit later this afternoon that kind of spells out best practices up there and just some of the guidelines. So you'll see that coming soon. So thank you for joining us today Sharon. Do you have any general updates or do you want to launch into the materials that you prepared first? I just, some thank yous. So I really want to, I want to highlight and I want everybody to know in the community how incredible the relationship is between the library and the folks at Town Hall and all of our town colleagues. We are so lucky. It's not necessarily like this in all municipalities and I just want you all to know how much we appreciate that we do not take you guys for granted. And as far as my staff goes, this gets me really emotional. So much has gone into the planning for today. Today is the big day where returns start happening again. And I want to, I would love to take the time to name off every single staff member because they've all been so amazing. They've really stepped up to the plate and said, What do you need Sharon? I'm there. But I want to call out Amy and I, who's been working so hard and has gotten it done and here it is today. George Hicks, who's our facilities manager, he's, he and his crew have done amazing things getting the building ready so that it's safe for the public and for staff. And our head of IT at the library who also works with Brianna and John and the town's IT department. Hank has just been so great, you guys. And I really just want to call those three folks out. Yeah, so Brianna, if you could pull up this little infographic that I've put together, just for talking points for people and Yes, so I thought if I, if I gave a quick presentation about what we've got going on starting today and moving through the summer, maybe it would help answer some of the questions beforehand. So on your screen, April and May of 2020. So, so what have we been doing up until now? I understand I hear this question all the time and so do the staff. Sharon, why can't we just get back to it. It's not hard to just let us return books and let us check out new books. And I wish that were the case. So one of the things that we've been having to line up is supplies PPE and cleaning supplies. And so on your screen I put down emergency versus essential so emergency services, police fire DPW, they never stopped. And so, and so supply companies for, you know, bleach and alcohol products and masks and all those things they've all of those supplies have been directed towards those departments. Until very recently, where libraries have been allowed to start getting that those supplies and equipment and so, you know, we're considered an essential service but many of our supplies were put on back order for a very long time and there are still things we're still waiting for. We've also been working with the town on human resources policies. Our staff were just trained yesterday on some standard office procedures about how to keep themselves safe and their colleagues and the patrons. We have enough masks for staff now and we've got hand sanitizing stations throughout the library. We've got a few wipes minimal. We're going to be relying on a lot of paper towels and sanitizing solution. And we've been having to do some work on our HVAC system, because it's not very friendly. So if you could scroll down Brianna. So, a couple weeks ago June 1 through the eighth, we've been staff have slowly been going back into the building and and what we've been doing is staggering the staffing based on room by room maximum capacities. We have 12 different departments and, and while many of the department heads have their own offices, most of our library staff don't. So, because of the way the building the Jones library building in particular is, you know, kind of chopped up into these tiny little rooms. We can only allow one staff member to be in all these tiny little rooms, which just makes it harder to to get our work done. We also share a lot of equipment and supplies we share computers we share telephones staplers and pens and pencils and things like that. So, so we've just, it's taken a long time to organize and lay out a logistics flow for staff to be able to do their work. We have a disinfecting regimen now. Bathrooms are assigned to certain staff depending on where they are located throughout the building. So all that is in place now. And here it is Thursday, June 18. This is, this is the moment we've all been waiting for literally. So today we are starting to accept materials returns, and they can be from any library. I know that there are some libraries out there that are only accepting returns of their own items, but if you want, bring it all back to the Jones that's totally fine. And so what we've done is we've set up a system where everything is going to be quarantined in our Woodbury room. So in order to minimize staff contact with those items, we're just asking that patrons during the day, return the items down in the back in the wood, next to the Woodbury room there is a book drop right in the building and so people can just put their things there, and then walk away the the sidewalk is taped off in case a line forms so it helps people stay six feet away from one another. Or at night, you know, if you're working during the day or don't want to return your items until nighttime, you can use that Amity Street exterior book drop. And yeah, so it seems complicated and a pain in the neck and I really do understand that you don't need to memorize these things everything is labeled so if you want just go to the library and you'll see that the Amity Street is locked during the day so just walk down the down the driveway and and stick it in the back of the building. Everything that we receive will be quarantined, whether it's from patrons or other libraries, even from staff. We're collecting donations of paper bags for example, even those are going to be quarantined for seven days. We're going to assume that everything has the virus. We cannot afford either in time or supplies to disinfect every item. So we're just going to use time. Time is free. And we figured that patrons have waited this long to get their items another seven days I think will be okay, just so that there's peace of mind there. What's happening is, what does that say patrons. Oh, here's the thing. So you do not have to start returning your stuff now. If you want to keep it out because those are your the only books you have in the house, and you want to wait until you can refresh your supply. It's totally fine we don't charge overdue fines. So just keep them until later until it's time to check out new things. So then on Monday, June 22, just in a few days. That's when we're going to start distributing the books that are on our hold shelf so people who placed holds way back in March and and the items have been sitting on the libraries hold shelf since March, we are going to contact you you may have already been contacted. And we're, we're, we're going to tell people, okay Monday is the time you can come and pick it up. And what will happen is we will check the items out in the building. And then when you are ready, you will let the staff know and we will actually bring it out to you on the front lawn of the library. It's going to be a table set up underneath a tent, and, and there will be no contact it'll be in a brown paper bag and we'll just put it on the table and you'll come and pick it up and, and take it away. Can I say, as in all cases, you can call or email staff with any questions that you have. You won't be able to ask questions. While you are physically at the library, because we are kind of we're we're exiting the building dropping the stuff on the table and then going back into the building so the whole point is to be contactless at this point. But staff are everywhere ready to accept your telephone calls your emails, however, is best to ask your questions, please do. And then right now our target date is Monday, July 6 for walk up pickup service to resume. So we never stopped. And allowing our patrons to reserve items to place holds. You could have been doing that the whole time and and if you haven't, you can start now. So you can start placing your holds again either online through through the website you can call us or you can email us and place those holds when the items come in and they're ready for you we will notify you. And we'll set up a time when you can come. I think what's going to happen is we will be saying, okay, if your last name is, you know, a through G come on Monday, that that kind of a thing we've tried other libraries have tried scheduling. Okay, here's this two hour slot that you must come during, and it's just kind of not working, you know people have their own schedules everybody's lives are kind of turned upside down at this point. Yeah, so I think we'll be looking at different periods of time that you can come. So you place the holds will let you know we'll check it out we'll put it on the table. We'll be working with you Paul the town manager will be asking for the town manager to reserve those parking spaces directly in front of the library on Amity Street for 14 days. And so people can park there, literally park your car get out come get your items and then get back into your car and then drive away. We're going to we'll try it as an experimental time period and hopefully it'll work beautifully you know we want to make sure there are no traffic jams or accidents or people getting hurt or anything like that and if it works well then I will I will go to town council and ask for those parking spaces to be reserved for us for a longer time period. Front lawn tent table, not car trunks that's it that's another piece. So this is why we've called it the walk up pickup service we don't want people to think that we're actually going to be bringing the bags of your materials and putting them in your trunk you're going to, you're going to have to come up and pick up the items. We will continue with the staggered staffing also reference services are going to continue out of the North Amherst library. So up until now, people have been asking reference questions and that's been great. Staff have been fielding hundreds of calls every week. The downside is that staff are using their own cell phones. And so what we'd like to do is use a dedicated library line. But because we don't have enough telephones and enough space in the library and the Jones building we're going to move that that service over to the North Amherst library and conduct reference services from there. The next phase and we're not sure when this is going to happen yet. Whoops. Yeah, go back up that yeah, perfect to be determined so so ever changing that's my note there. When we finally get to allow patrons into the building, we have no idea when that's going to be. And, but what staff are talking about weekly at this point and librarians are talking about it across the state. The need for like a one directional loop through the building everybody will go in through one building, and we're going to direct you through through a loop and then everybody will exit out a different door so that there isn't any, you know close contact. Again the Jones building has really small rooms and you know lots of stairwells but they're all skinny you know not you can't pass by one another in them so we're trying to put this flow together. Computers has been another really important topic, because we do not plan on allowing folks to use our desktop computers in the library, but what we would love is to be able to check out laptops for people. And there are really fancy schmancy systems you can buy with their like it's a system, you know floor to ceiling, you insert your library card and you actually get to check out a laptop and you take it wherever it is that you take it whether it's in the building or home, and then you return it it goes back into this, this fancy schmancy holder, and then it can be cleaned in time for the next person to use it. When I say fancy schmancy that means it's expensive. So this is something that we're looking into because a lot of people are are at home they don't have Wi Fi, they can't afford the Wi Fi they can't afford the technology, and that's our job that's what we want to do so so staff are working on that. Also, when it's time for patrons to come back into the building plexiglass, you know dividers at the service desks that those will be installed in times for that signage floor labels. You know, you go use these stairs to go up and you use these stairs to go down. That kind of a thing. I think. Let's see if there's some questions out there. Please. Okay, just one second while I stop sharing for a moment. I want to remind the folks who had joined us after I already said this to use the q amp a function in zoom or raise your hand. If you're on the phone I see a couple phone callers press star nine. And we can bring you into the room to ask your question. I know that was a lot of material and a lot of updates from the library so if you have any questions great information yeah. I'm going to stop in the room. I don't see any hands or questions in the chat at the moment. We did have some that were previously submitted. So I could read some of those or this is that some of these things Sharon spoke to already which was great. We have a question about their someone's library card being expired. I knew this to keep using my digital services. So you know I told the library staff that I would be doing this interview and I should have warned all of you that I would do my best to represent them. And so this is one of the questions that I'm not sure I'm going to answer correctly. Your card will absolutely be renewed. Don't worry about it expiring or getting notifications. I thought that everything had been put off until July 1. I will have to look more into that but I know that if you call the library Amy certainly she has access to evergreen and she can update your card. To say I got an email and I'm trying to think about who it was at this point from someone in the Jones asking me if telling me my card was expired and if they wanted to renew it for me to just reply back and I did and they took care of it. So if you got an email like that. That might be a good way to to get your your card renewed and I can't remember who it was but I'm going to find out their name they were great and I recommend doing that if you've gotten an email from Jones library. It's a simple flip of a switch. Okay, so we have a question here in the chat. Does the plan for a one way path mean no browsing. So again, that's why I wrote ever changing on it right now when we've had when we're having our staff discussions. The thought was no browsing and so you would you'd come in, you'd let the staff know you know we would be located at certain public desks you'd let us know what we would want and we would have staff go and get the items for you. But it's made maybe in September or whenever this happens, you know maybe the virus will be gone and so we can open it wide up again so that that's why I'd like to say our plan right now for the beginning is not to allow browsing, but that could change. So one of the things that has come up is a lot of people use the Jones library in particular but other libraries to as a place to escape from the heat or just to hang out read a magazine or read a book for a while and that's what's been really missing for a lot of folks who don't have a permanent home or just need to get out of their own home for a while to separate from just get get some space. And that's been a real loss I think for the community and one of the things that we're looking at are as a cooling center or something so when those really, really difficult hot days are out there. There is a space for people to go in town and it's the CDC has issued guidelines from what cooling centers need to have in terms of staffing and spacing and all the requirements so everything is new so there's new guidelines that just came out actually this morning that I've seen. So I think that that's going to be a service because I don't I really don't see the library and maybe you can correct me library being open for patrons to hang out in for a while, Sharon. Yeah, not for a while. Yeah. Another question we have here is what types of summer kids program and will the library have. I love that you that you asked that question, because it's been one of the staff concerns to, you know, since March we've been so focused on programming, and now here the switch over is in priority over to reserving checkout services, and how in the world do we manage the program. Now, check out services along with the programming. We still have a lot of staff that will be working on programming. So, I actually was throwing together a list. I want to do a shout out for this dial a story that the children's room has put together so every week. It's called a super secret story time. It's all and you can have your child will be read a story at night or the whole family can be put together. And that phone number is 259-3143. It's awesome. But we will also be doing summer reading programs all summer long and that'll be for kids, teenagers and adults. We'll continue with the ukulele strum alongs that's been going along all the way. Our local author spotlights and our local author interviews once a week a new author has been interviewed. Those have been so wonderful. Interesting. There have been positive aspects of the pandemic. I don't want to say that, but we've really library staff have come up with new ways of using the technology to offer their services that I think will be continuing even once life starts to go back to normal. Monson still has their kids corner programs on Thursdays. Monson is also doing monthly book discussions for adults. Conversation circles, they've been going, they stopped for a little while, but then they picked right up doing Zoom. And now they have people from literally around the world who are participating in their conversation circles through Zoom. Awesome. So those will continue. There's an oral history project that's just beginning where teenagers are going to be interviewing senior citizens from the community. We're in the process of getting our interviewers and our interviewees lined up so that that'll be another summer project that we're excited about. And then one one last plug for this life in Amherst mass during the pandemic. If you go on to the library's website, our special collections department is looking for your stories. What has, how has life changed for you, you know, during the these past three, six months or so. We would love to hear from you, you know, to document it so that people in 100 200 years from now can see what we've been through right now. That's exciting. Yeah, I have I still have to share my story. I know that we put out the that call to action. We'll put we'll post it again on the behalf of the special collections department. Yeah, I think it'd be really interesting. They do a great job on looking back into our history just for an example with special collections during our inauguration they did a look back to Amherst government and I just, it's an interesting way to have your voice be included for future One more, one more shout out for this, this collaboration that we've got going on between town hall in the library, and I want to highlight Cindy Harbison as curator and what she has done with you all, Brianna. So, you all have done an incredible job of putting together this Juneteenth program every year, and this year it's online. And so Cindy has been integral to that and she thanks you for that opportunity. And she's put together this incredible slideshow for tomorrow at four o'clock and I just, I can't wait to see the program so thank you for that. And speaking of highlights, your hair Brianna. I didn't. So this is a, I just want to acknowledge all the students who this the last day of school before summer, and this was my kiddos wish for the last day of school was to get turquoise. So this is in solidarity with her and all the parents and teachers who have had an interesting and kids. Three months of remote learning so a reverse parade to Fort River. Yes, there was a wonderful reverse parade at Fort River, where we got to drive through with the dog in the car and wave at all the teachers. So it was really great. I think it was a nice way to close out the year. Strange year you guys had. It's been a strange year. And I do have extra color Paul. Scary. Okay, that might be a bet. Yes, I'd have to lose. But yeah, so I think let me just check the room once more and remind folks we're coming kind of close to our, our 1230 deadline so last chance to get your questions in while we have our fabulous library director here. I'm going to raise a star nine raise hand or use Q&A. I don't see anything. Oh, I've got a raised hand so I am going to allow and I'm just going to say the last four of your phone number. So that we don't share share that 7273. I'm going to bring you into the room now. Please introduce yourself. Hi, this is Jim Russell from the Republican newspaper. I just wanted to ask Paul something quickly on the North Pleasant Street. And thank you Sharon for the update as well and Brianna obviously Jim here obviously but so Paul just wondering when when is that plan to have from Maine to Bistro 63. I wasn't quite sure if I got a date when that is going to happen with the street will actually be closed and you had mentioned that the DPW was power washing the sidewalks is it will they also be power washing the North Pleasant Street. Yes, they they've been power washing sidewalks for the last couple of weeks actually going up and down and some sidewalks they've been putting steel and don't. So we're not closing the road we're eliminating parking in front of those. I'm glad I asked so we'll have more with a parking area so that there could be an extension. Yeah. Okay good good good and do you have a date when that's going to begin or is it just already begun. Yes, I appreciate you clarifying that because I clearly. So it's important that people know that North Pleasant Street will be open. It'll be narrower because there won't be parking out. So we're hoping to get that done this weekend actually they were moving as quickly as possible there were applications from the restaurants going to the board of licensing commissioners this afternoon. And if they give the okay which we anticipate that they will we'd like to open it tomorrow. Okay, wow. Yeah, it's going to be a warm night. Yes. Yes. Okay, good. And just the other thing too and I can double check with the Brianna just to get the some of the, you know, the the number of businesses and restaurants also the. Okay, okay. So that that will be tomorrow then I can't remember what the other thing was. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Are there any. Yeah, this is just the other thing. It just in terms because it said come up at the council meetings regarding how the determination is made to in cases some dispute or disagreement who has how much space is that something I'm guessing that'll be fleshed out by tomorrow. So, so when a when a restaurant comes to the building to the inspection services saying they'd like to use some space they have to give a plan with a layout. If they serve alcohol they have to put a basically at least a rope around it that somehow sections it off. And then I'm responsible for giving them permission to use the public way. So really all funnels through inspection services and they lay it out. And it won't be just in front of their businesses some businesses are saying we're not going to need our space give it to my neighbor next door and so we're sort of allocating it and trying to be in communication really in very close contact with the business improvement district director who is basically the liaison with a lot of the businesses reaching out affirmatively saying do you want space to anticipate needing it. If not we're going to have someone else use it because we if we're going to close off the parking spaces we want people to be able to use it. Right, right, right. Okay so hopefully by tomorrow maybe lunchtime or dinner and by the weekend for sure that's the plan at this point. Yeah most of the restaurants are only going to be open in the evening. Okay so so so all right so it gives you a few more hours to yeah okay well thank you thank you very much and thank you. Thank you. Bye bye. Thanks Jim. Okay anyone else in the room we are coming up to our time so if I don't see any hands or Q&A I will ask Sharon if there's any last words you want to say that you didn't get asked or didn't get to go through. No we're just really it's so excited to see the community again so thank you well. All right last chance Paul any any parting words. Thank you for doing this. Thank you everyone happy summer and we will see you next week.