Library Doors Swing Back Open

The doors were wide open again at the public library’s main branch — and two patrons were found browsing through the wide variety of nonfiction books in the stacks.

Staffers are trying to get the word out so more New Haveners come back inside.

After closing physical buildings to the public and offering curbside and online service for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, New Haven’s libraries have reopened, with some rules in place to keep people safe. (One exception: The Stetson branch on Dixwell, which is preparing to move into a new home at the rebuilt Q House, is offering curbside pick-up for books and conducting events out in the community.)

The Ives Main Branch and the Fair Haven, Hill, and Westville branches are now open Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Ives Main Branch is also open on Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for those that can’t make it during the week.

To ensure library visits are safe, there are time limits for book browsing and technology use, limited furniture, and employees monitor capacity based on their location size. Branch Manager Kirk Morrison said the Fair Haven Library, for instance, can allow only 12 people in at a time.

Library Public Services Administrators Sharon Lovett-Graff and Susan Totter miss the customers and are ready to hear children laughing and see their excitement as they run to pick out books.

“We wanted to keep it kind of quiet at first because we didn’t want it to be overwhelming or for anybody to feel uncomfortable,” Totter said.

“I hope that at some point, we’ll be able to start to increase the numbers that could come in and, and get the word out more.”

Lovett-Graff and Totter joke that the library never really closed. ​“We just changed the way we were doing things,” Lovett-Graff said. Over the course of the pandemic, resources like online browsing with curbside book pick-up, Zoom events on Facebook, and hotspot and laptop rentals have been available through the New Haven Public Free Library website.

During the pandemic, New Haven libraries catered to the specific needs of their communities. Morrison said printing, scanning, faxing, and other office services requests are popular at Fair Haven Library. Lovett-Graff explained that the demand is so high at the Ives location’s technology center — which provides access to computers and private rooms for telehealth appointments or Zoom interviews —- that it has a special Temple Street entrance.

The Ives Library also has an on-site licensed master social worker, Maribel Oyola. Through a partnership with Liberty Community Services, Oyola assists those experiencing homelessness and unemployment by helping find rapid and permanent housing and applying to jobs.

Bill Armstrong of the Wilson branch in the Hill, said the biggest challenge with reopening is, ​“the thing with Covid is that it’s something we have never experienced before, so you don’t know where you’re going. So you just kind of feel your way forward.” In late March, Wilson Branch Library hosted a vaccine clinic. ​“I think it made everybody feel a lot more comfortable with our opening. Realizing that the opportunities to get vaccinated, were really available pretty quickly,” Totter said.

Although library doors are now opened, those who want to stay contact-free can use apps that allow free downloads of the library’s vast collection.

Additionally, the main branch offers a self-checkout desk and long-range wifi that can reach the New Haven Green, other branches are also in the process of increasing wifi signal.

To get more people back to the library and involved many locations are looking forward to outside programming as the weather gets warm. Branch managers hope for reading events on the Green, public art projects at Wilson, and community gardening Fair Haven.

While perusing the nonfiction books for the first time in a year Wednesday Alex Bennett, 24, said the library closing had a sad day for her.

“I’ve missed coming here the most because I always did as a kid and it makes me happy to be amongst the books. I get lost in here for hours so when the pandemic first started I was excited because initially, I thought I’d have more time to read but then I came here one day, and it was closed,” Bennett said. ​“I’m very happy the library reopened.