Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2020 Issue

How and When Can Libraries Reopen?

Almost, if not all libraries have closed down because of the pandemic. The decision on one level may have been tough, but the reality is there was no choice. Safety had to come first. The American Library Association issued a recommendation on March 17 stating, “To protect library workers and their communities from exposure to COVID-19 in these unprecedented times, we strongly recommend that academic, public and school library leaders and their trustees and governing bodies evaluate closing libraries to the public and only reopening when guidance from public health officials indicates the risk from COVID-19 has significantly subsided.”

 

That was the easy part. What will be much harder to decide is when to reopen. Has the risk “significantly subsided?” Is that even the standard anymore? States and communities have been conducting phased, partial reopenings of businesses around America and other countries too, though it is at best unclear whether the risk has at all subsided, let alone significantly. Decisions to reopen appear to be being made based more on the devastating financial consequences of a long shut down than on the coronavirus having been defeated. As states and cities allow various businesses and public facilities to reopen, each library will likely have to make its own decision if and when to reopen and exactly how to do it.

 

We should note here that by “reopening” we mean physical reopening. Most have remained open online, and many, particularly large ones, increased these services. New York Public Library Chief Executive Officer Tony Marx noted on Influencers with Andy Serwer (Yahoo Finance interviews) that borrowings of e-books increased sevenfold after the library closed its doors. He also observed, “Opening is going to be a lot messier,” but that “we are going to be thoughtful and very careful.”

 

Some libraries have now reopened, at least partially, and others are considering when and how to do this. Each has its own plan, but the most common thread through all we have seen is that the reopenings will be phased. Almost no one appears to be simply throwing open the doors and resuming services as if nothing happened. The most minimal reopening is the library that has begun accepting returned books again, outside, in front of the library. This involves no new borrowing, simply taking returns. Next in line comes the library that is taking orders over the internet and allowing the patron to pick up the book at the library.

 

Others are letting patrons back inside again, but are applying the “restaurant solution.” This is one you see in some localities where restaurants are allowed to reopen, but may only seat 25% or some other percentage of their normal customers. In this case, libraries are removing or blocking off certain tables or seats so that patrons are kept separated by at least six feet. Others have used the “grocery store solution.” That is where they have special hours for at-risk patrons. Baton Rouge libraries are reserving the first hour of the day for those at risk.

 

Some libraries that have physically reopened are employing the temperature check. They have their electronic thermometer at the ready by the door and will only allow you in if your temperature is 98.6 or, perhaps, within a degree of that. Some have reopened but with shorter hours, and others require wearing masks.

 

For those libraries that do reopen, they then face the issue of keeping their space free from the virus. Librarians have become cleaners too. Cleaning can't be left to the night crew as every time a patron leaves, the table they were using, the chair on which they were seated, have to be cleaned with bleach or something else strong. Even the books themselves become an issue. Several libraries have already added quarantining of books along with cleaning them when returned to the library. In Charleston, South Carolina, returned books are put aside for three days before being reshelved. In Wheeling, West Virginia, they are a bit more conservative, quarantining returned books for four days before cleaning them and making them available to the public.

 

As New York Public CEO Tony Marx pointed out, reopening will be a lot messier than closing. Each library will have to find its own way as there is no manual for reopening a library closed by a pandemic. We are all trying to find our way through this great unknown.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
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    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
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    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
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    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
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    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
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    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
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    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
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    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
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    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
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    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
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    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
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    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
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    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
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    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
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    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
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    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.
  • Sotheby's
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    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
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    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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