Greetings from the Covid Prep Librarian

    So today is my first day as a Covid prep librarian.  After three months of quarantine life, I went back to Curbside librarian doing all my word behind closed doors.  Now my library system has reopened to the public for the first time since March 13, albeit with 25 % capacity.  That's not the only change.  We are now behind plexiglass windows, much of our furniture has been removed to allow for social distancing, there are stickers on our floor in 6ft intervals (that I keep seeing out of the corner of my eye wanting to pick them up), tables have one chair, and my children's area looks like a crime scene with caution tape everywhere.  Usually this time of Summer is the busiest.  Today I think I have seen a total of 5 kids, and they were in and out with their parents and a loaded bag of books.  It is almost surreal to be here.  It feels like I am in some kind of contagion movie, but unfortunately I am not co-staring with my beloved Matt Damon. 

    I don't feel like a librarian very much these days.  I haven't done a storytime since March 11.  They are on hold indefinitely along with all library programming, basically my favorite part of the job.  Summer is usually Librarian Christmas, bustling with activity, celebration, and joy.  It has been rough.  A big part of my identity is being a children's librarian.  I am also back to full time hours.  I got very used to being home with my kids and even when I went to 20 hours I still got to see a lot more of them.  It's like coming back from maternity leave all over again, only my girls are 7 and 8 years old and really know that I'm not there.  As babies they were good as long as they had food, diaper changes, and snuggles.  They have told me over and over during this whole mess how much they loved having me around more.  Ugh!

    I need to find some kind of outlet.  I want to be creative.  I need to be creative.  So this is going to be my platform for a while.  Hopefully you will indulge me and share this blog with friends and family in need of a librarian.  With each passing day I feel like I am losing my skills and my enthusiasm.  I need to reclaim my sparkle.  So let's get started with this new phase of my career.  I couldn't have imagined 14 years ago when I started that things would be like this.

More soon!

Miss Jen