Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By CHARITY SMITH
csmith@yourdaily
Ironwood – The Ironwood Carnegie Library reverted back to curbside only services this week as a result of the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Gogebic County. Library officials hope to resume in-person services again on Nov. 9.
"Following the decision when the (local schools) and the college decided to close, we decided that we would also close down for two weeks," said Lynne Wiercinski, director of the Ironwood Library.
She said she consults with the health department regularly, and they said it was up to her, but they have seen some decline in cases when both the schools and the libraries close down for a few weeks.
According to Wiercinski senior citizens make up a large part of the library's clientele which along with its large children's section influenced her decision to close.
"I think it's every library's decision on how to do things correctly," Wiercinski said. "Part of it for us is our huge children's area. I know with the schools being closed I think we might be seeing a lot of families coming in to use it, which would have been counterproductive to the schools closure. It is hard for us because we love having our children's room full of children."
She said that people have been understanding and acknowledged that curbside service is no substitute for being able to go to into the library.
The library is open for curbside pickup on Monday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 2 to 5 p.m .; and on Tuesday and Thursday from noon to 6 p.m. There is no curbside pickup on Wednesdays or weekends.
Curbside pickup is provided on the east side of the building along Norfolk Street by the handicapped ramp. Patrons are asked to call upon arrival and remain in their vehicle and books will be placed on a table for them to pick up. If a patron has a physical limitation and is unable to get out of their car, the librarians will place the books into the trunk or an empty passenger seat for them.
The library has two options for ordering books. Residents can either call and request a book from a librarian or utilize the online card catalog to place a book on hold. If someone does not know the specific book they want, they can call the library and ask for a "reader advisory chat," and the librarian will help them choose. Home delivery is available for patrons who cannot come to the library due to illness or physical limitations.
Books can be returned by placing them either in the standard book drop or into a bin that will be under the curbside pickup table during service hours. Patrons are asked to only check out five books at a time and interlibrary loans are not available.
Elswhere
Other local libraries remain open with limited capacity.
"We have curbside service and appointment visits. It seems to be working really well for us right now, because with the appointments we only let one person or family in at a time, so we don't have a lot of mixing anyway," said Melissa Luppino, director of the Bessemer Library. "It's working really well for us so as long as I don't have to make any changes we're just going to keep on keeping on."
The Bessemer Library will be offering Halloween treat bags for kids on Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. The bags have crafts, candy and books - "all sorts of fun stuff," said to Luppino.
Luppino said that they will also be offering their gingerbread house program virtually this year. She said people can pick up gingerbread house kits. Kits will be available for people to pick up at the library from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12, and patrons are asked to post a picture of their house onto the library's Facebook page.
"It's always fun to see what people create," she said. "Usually we just see what they come up with, because how they like engineer a house made of graham crakders to stand up. It's always fun."
She said she doesn't make examples of how she wants them to look like because she doesn't want them to all look the same.
"People get really creative when they have the exact same candies and the exact same ingredients. What they come up with on their own is always so much fun to see," Luppino said.
The Wakefield Library remains open to the public, but does not have any activities for its patrons because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patrons are asked to wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines. Computer services are first come first serve or a reservation for a computer can be made by calling ahead. Curbside services are available to to those who request them prior to arrival.
"Normally, we'd have some things going on but with the current situation, we are just maintaining the status quo," said Wakefield Library director Joel Laessig. "We are happy to be open cause a lot of libraries are not open or are open for appointment only. We are cautiously optimistic that things will return to normal sometime soon."
The Hurley Library is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, for both in person and curbside.
The Mercer Library is open for their regular hours. However they are unable to get library deliveries from other libraries because the system staff members, who are based in Ashland, have been exposed to COVID-19 and our quarantined. Therefore the library is only able to offer items in the library's local collection.
They are limited to 25% capacity which is 16 people, but Mercer Library Director Teresa Schmidt said that is rarely a problem as business is "kind of slow."
Mercer Library events are primarily online. There are no in-person events at this time, with the exception of a Trunk-or-Treat Halloween event which will be held in the library parking lot on Saturday, weather permitting.