Greenburgh Public Library Blog

Covid-19 Memory Project Revisited

I cannot believe that it has been seven months since the Greenburgh Public Library closed its doors to the public due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  It has been hard for me to grasp that it has been six months since I had to wage my own personal battle with the Coronavirus!   I am saddened for the more than two hundred thousand souls that were lost, the countless more people who had their lives turned upside down, and are still and will continue struggling financially, physically, mentally, and emotionally for the foreseeable future.  

As we have seen many times in the past, when faced with a serious crisis with long term consequences, we have learned to adjust and make important changes to adopt to a new normal.  For example, at the Greenburgh Public Library this morning while I’m writing,  patrons who had placed items on hold, are picking up their items in our “contact-less” curb-side pick up service.  When patrons are notified that their items are available for pickup at the library, they drive up to the circle near the entrance to the library, call 721-8204, staff members retrieve their items from the hold shelves, check them out, and put items on a table outside for patrons to pick up their items.  

Another way the library has thrived is that more people are learning how to use our e-library services to read, listen and watch.  We have a wide selection of titles on our e-library platform in multiple media for people to choose from that was widely used even before the pandemic lock down began.  I have had many residents of my apartment building asking about the availability of our e-library services. 

Perhaps the most innovative thing we have done in the pandemic is using all our technological tools available to keep us connected with our patrons and to continue offering a wide range of exciting programs for all ages. Think about this: if the weather is stormy outside, you do not have to spend all that time getting the kids ready and rush to the library for story time.  You simply let story time into your home via Zoom!  Even at the end of 2019 this would have been unthinkable.  

As many of you know, I contacted a mild case of Covid-19 in April, a few weeks after the Greenburgh Public Library began operating remotely.  Even though it was a mild case of the virus, I spent 18 days isolated in a small spare room, some days waking up not knowing when I would be ok. 

We have all been impacted greatly by the Covid-19 pandemic in many ways.  The fact that I am at home (in the same room I was in quarantine) typing this is one of many ways I have been personally affected by the pandemic.  With the help and support of my superb colleagues, the Greenburgh Public Library started a Covid-19 Memory Project.  The Memory Project has been designed to collect and store first hand recollections of how people in our community have been affected by the pandemic.  So whether it is a story of how your family coped with the lockdown or a picture of long lines at the grocery stores, for example, we want to save it for future generations so they can understand what it was like back in the year 2020. 

One of the nicest things to happen during the lockdown was I received a call from a new resident of my building wanting to donate six bottles of hand sanitizer to the library that she got from a double order she received.  Simple acts of random kindness gives me hope for a brighter future.