What happens when a public library can’t open its doors to the public?

That’s a question the Minot Public Library faced on March 15 when administration made the very difficult decision to close.

As a public library, MPL has hundreds of people coming through their doors each day to attend programs, use computers, check out materials, and browse magazines and newspapers. Despite increasing cleaning and disinfecting of shared spaces, staff recognized that their patrons and staff were at risk of spreading germs and therefore closed to the public.

Though the library couldn’t allow the public into the building, staff were determined to still provide quality services as long as possible. In order to help people get through this time of social distancing, staff scrambled to institute a curbside delivery service for the first two weeks of closure. During these two weeks, 1,179 items were checked out to MPL patrons and brought to their vehicles thanks to a small handful of library staff who made it their mission to help our community during this time.

As the curbside delivery service wrapped up, staff continued to look for ways to connect with patrons. Children’s Librarian Randi Monley realized that “for younger children, the library’s story time may be one of the only activities they routinely attend outside of home and/or school,” so she began offering abbreviated versions of story times via Facebook Live. “This routine not only provides stability, but also enhances their love of learning and understanding by encouraging children to focus on the books and songs being shared,” Monley said. Monley has even had some special guests for her story times and has adapted to the “new normal” by hosting this story time from home when needed. The Facebook Live story times will be held Monday through Friday at 10:30 a.m. on the Minot Public Library’s Facebook page for as long as staff are able to continue.

As with story time, the Minot Public Library has been taking advantage of its social media to connect to patrons by keeping them informed and helping to enrich their lives. MPL is working hard to keep people educated during this unprecedented time, and one way they are doing this is by sharing reliable information. The library has a huge variety of resources on their website, www.minotlibrary.org, for information about COVID-19 and also for educational and recreational activities people can do from home. Staff are working on compiling a list of community resources for people in need and for those who want to help others; this will also be available on the library’s website, Facebook and Instagram. Anyone with useful resources or who are aware of needs within the community are asked to e-mail janet.anderson@minotnd.org with details.

One unique way the Minot Public Library is helping the community is by using their 3D printers, which were purchased through grants from Best Buy and the Friends of the Library, to print masks for medical professionals and First Responders. MPL Teen Librarian Pam Carswell received a template for the masks and joined a local group printing these plastic, reusable masks to be used by care providers who are treating patients who are NOT at the hospital for COVID-19 symptoms or testing. These are for providers who work on other floors and are seeing patients for other reasons. According to members of the local volunteer group, medical professionals have found that these masks provide a level of protection higher than surgical masks but are not a replacement for n95 masks. Carswell said she thinks this project is “important in order to protect people from COVID-19 and conserve scarce PPE, and I’m very honored to be able to help.”

Finally, MPL staff want to continue inspiring people in Minot to not only do good things for others, but to take care of themselves. One way the library can help with this is by providing access to a variety of digital resources to help people relax and take their minds off social distancing and toilet paper shortages. Digital resources such as OverDrive and RBdigital allow for patrons to download books, audiobooks, magazines, comics and even stream movies from anywhere with only their library card number. Staff are also working on ways to provide readers advisory service online or over the phone to help readers find their next great read. For those who are looking to spend their time at home learning a new skill, the Library has Creative Bug for crafting, Mango for foreign languages and Universal Class for a dozens of classes on topics such as dog grooming and Microsoft Excel. All of these are available for free at www.minotlibrary.org. Starting Monday, April 6 MPL will be offering library cards over the phone, by e-mail or Facebook Messenger to people needing a library card in order to use these digital resources. These library cards will expire after a short period and will be used only for online resources, but can be extended for full use once the library is open again.

Minot Public Library staff will be available Monday through Friday to take phone calls as staffing allows. People are encouraged to call 852-1045 for questions about any of our digital resources or for reference questions about community resources and other local information. Patrons with items checked out from MPL are welcome to keep the items through the end of April as no fines will be accrued for items due between March 15th and April 30th; for patrons who want to return items, the outside book drop is open 24 hours a day and is being checked daily. While library staff don’t know when they will see you again, they are working to help the community make it through this challenging time.