By Walter Elliott
ORANGE – The Orange Public Library, after some 14 months’ COVID-induced hibernation, may reawaken again as early as press time.
OPL Trustee President Cheryl Rixon and attorney Dan S. Smith, in an exclusive April 7 “Local Talk News” interview, are asking library cardholders and patrons to watch for the reopening announcement on www.orangepl.org.
“We’re following CDC guidelines in reopening for the safety of our patrons and staff,” said Rixon Wednesday afternoon. “We’re going to reopen gradually, starting with a curbside pickup service as early as tomorrow (April 8).”
By curbside pickup or “Grab-and-Go” service, OPL will be joining the ranks of most other “Local Talk News” public libraries. Patrons would submit borrowing requests, which the staff prepare for pickup in designated paper bags.
In OPL’s case, the website will provide a special e-mail address to make orders with. There will be no phoned-in or in-person orders taken – at least for the time being.
348 Main St., added Rixon, will be open only for curbside pickup during hours posted online.
“The pickup hours will be concurrent with the library’s present hours,” the trustee president said. “The hours will be on the website.”
OPL, perhaps by when you read this, will be open for curbside pickup service only. There may be an unanticipated detail that may delay that first step.
And that is the first step. Other services are not on OPL’s flexible schedule for the time being.
OPL, like all other public libraries, closed during the March 2020 outbreak and public health emergency proclamations.
Library directors and trustees, like most other institution leaders, have made appropriate service restorations based on COVID vaccination, infection and death rates from local through national health officials.
Most public libraries in the “Local Talk” area have re-opened their buildings to the public for limited services.
Many are re-opened for curbside or “grab and go” borrowing and/or craft material pickup.
Some allow a limited number of patrons inside to browse or renew materials, photocopy or use public computers at shorter times. The Newark Public Library system and the South Orange Public Library, for example, close two or three times a day to allow for cleaning.
The Montclair Public Library, as an exception, has kept its Bellevue Branch closed to the public.
The East Orange Public Library’s branches, as of press time, also remain closed – except for its Main Library’s “Grab and Go” service.
Most public libraries have moved previously in-person services online. While about all libraries have canceled their physical periodical subscriptions, some will refer periodical readers to “Libby” or another website carrier.
Many have been holding children and adult readings and activities via Facebook or other social mediums.
Some reference librarians are still in their buildings, fielding electronically sent questions or requests. The Irvington Public Library’s reference librarian, for example, fields phoned-in questions 5-7 p.m. “after hours” Tuesdays and Thursdays.
There are library employees inside, processing and preparing grab-and-go materials and maintaining the property.
Some of those online functions include library card renewals. Smith, on April 7, said that an announcement on OPL card renewals will come in the future.
The increasing vaccination rates here and across the U.S., have encouraged libraries, among other institutions, to expand their hours and services this second spring of the pandemic. Those advances may just as quickly be withdrawn, however, should New Jersey health officials experience a new wave of infections.
An April 5 Johns Hopkins University report, for example, cataloged that past week’s 452,000 new nationwide COVID cases by state. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan made up 197,500 – or 44 percent – of new cases.
New Jersey’s contact rate that week was 9.6 percent – a decline from 14.26 percent rate recorded March 28. State health officials want a 1.01 percent contact rate as a COVID-curbing factor.
The City of Orange’s Police Department and Office of Emergency Management has meanwhile occupied 348 Main St. as its COVID coordination and command center early in the pandemic emergency. The Stickle Memorial’s main entrance has since been blocked with yellow police tape.
It is not clear whether Orange’s “COVID Command” remains there or has moved elsewhere. Rixon, April 7, indicated that the authorities are still using part or parts of the 1901 main building and/or 1978 wing.
There have been occasions the past 14 months where cars with OPL employee placards have parked on Main and South Essex Streets – like they have had since at least the 1960s. Orange’s DPW workers had cleared that Main Street block’s parking spaces and sidewalks of snow soon after a February snowstorm.
Try calling OPL’s main telephone number into April 7 – and one gets a recording.
Its website, as of April 6, has remained largely frozen in time. The Library Board of Trustees roster still lists since-retired Orange School District Superintendent Ronald Lee as among its members.
One can get onto Jersey Clicks and Country Watch from the website – but other database links yield “page unsupported.”
The city, in its Calendar Year 2020 Municipal Budget, still allocates $500,000 to OPL. That outlay is a minimum calculated by a state board of libraries formula.
OPL, like most other libraries, is independent outside of that minimum municipal outlay and mayoral appointments to the trustee board.
OPL had been twice closed for an overall 14 months in 2010 and 2013-14.
The first closing, prompted by the city’s health department, was to remediate lead paint chips and asbestos April-July 2010.
The building was closed for extensive repairs by OSHA from April 2013-January 2014. It was reopened Jan. 13, 2014 with Mayor Dwayne D. Warren’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“We’re doing more than just reopening a library,” said Warren. “We’re returning to our children, families and visitors a cultural resource that’s sorely missed in our city.”
