City of Kenosha Announces Kenosha's Commit to Action Roadmap and Vaccine Update

• Last summer, in the wake of the Jacob Blake shooting, Mayor Antaramian and Police Chief Miskinis held listening sessions to hear from residents what went wrong and how to move forward. This month, the results of those sessions were posted along with "next steps." The library is likely to be involved in at least one of the proposed teams to develop plans for improvement in areas of concern. I invite you to consider playing an active role yourself if you are a city resident and have ideas to bring to the table. I'll let you know when the call for volunteers begins.
• City administration reports that government employees are scheduled to receive the vaccine in phase 4 of the vaccine rollout. In other words, the library staff as a group does not have special designation as essential workers. (I beg to differ- see page 6 of the current WLA newsletter for my take on libraries as essential services.) Your personal health challenges or age may place you in a higher category, meaning you may get the vaccine by summer. The rest of us have a while to wait. Please know that whether you have received the vaccine or not, or whether you have natural temporary immunity due to surviving a bout of COVID-19, you must continue to follow mask and social distancing protocol to keep your coworkers safe. We have done a tremendous job so far. Not one of our staff have become sick due to exposure at work. You have been amazing at following the guidelines! Not a day goes by when I don't think about how lucky I am to work with such thoughtful, caring people. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
• Wondering where our active borrowers live in town? Wondering where we haven't connected? View this interactive map showing activity by census tract. Brandi and I will be brainstorming ways to connect with neighborhoods with low library use. If you have great ideas, send them my way!
• From the Kenosha County Health Department: Kenosha Community Health Center, Inc. has officially moved the COVID-19 Testing Site to a new downtown location at 5506 – 7th Avenue (formerly Chase Bank Drive Thru). The new site will be operational Wednesday, December 30, 2020. Hours of operation will remain unchanged: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays from 8am-4pm. o Testing will be conducted by appointment. A new online registration and scheduling process has been added. Registration and scheduling can be accessed by visiting the KCHC website or using the following link: https://www.kenoshachc.org/covid-19-resource-center/ • Other new COVID-19 testing will be available in the next two weeks. Stay tuned to the County’s COVID Hub Website for up-to-the-moment details as we once again increase testing capacity.
• If you're looking for something to read over the holidays, Library Journal has released its annual list of best books. If you love beautiful architecture, you can virtually visit 8 magnificent libraries. Or you can reorganize your home collections the librarian way. So many books, so little time!

This week's Bright Spot goes to the maintenance team, Dan, Jeff, Scott and Jason, for tackling the first big snow of the season with their signature good humor and can-do spirit! We appreciate you guys so much!

Enjoy this snowy weekend and Happy New Year to you all!

Barb

Quarantine Time Modified

 Hello, Everyone

Back in October, the libraries in Oregon asked their state health department to make a determination on  the correct quarantine time for library materials. The epidemiologists evaluated the Battelle Labs  REALM Project experimental data and concluded that library materials quarantined for 24 hours posed negligible health threat to the public. Here is the official letter released in October. 

This information came to us just as the infection rate began to soar in Wisconsin, so we held off on implementing the new guidelines here so we wouldn't further alarm the public. In the meantime, the libraries surrounding us grabbed the chance to reduce the stress on their space and workflow by adopting the new 24 hour guidelines. 

Today we reexamined our policies and decided that reducing our 96 hour quarantine to 48 hours was supported by the science and posed no added threat to KPL staff or the public. So starting today, we will reduce our quarantine period for all library materials to 48 hours. This is still more precautionary than the Oregon guidance, but we prefer to err on the side of caution during this time of increased spread. All staff handling returns should continue to wear gloves and everyone should keep their masks on in shared spaces. This combination of precautions should keep us safe at work. 

Keep up the good work, everyone!

Barb

News for the Week

 This morning the Chamber of Commerce held its annual Legislative Update. Here's what I learned:

• Pfizer's facility in Pleasant Prairie is one of three distribution sites for their CPVID-19 vaccine. That means we are geographically positioned to begin vaccinations in our area by the middle of December, ahead of many areas of the country. Health care workers are first in line. Essential workers are second. Naturally the decision about who qualifies as essential will be contentious. Certainly teachers will be on that list so children are able to return to the classroom.
• The state's biennial budget process is underway and there will be a lot of pressure on the budget with the additional costs of the pandemic. Federal support for state and local governments is pending in Congress at this time.
• Wisconsin has caught up with the backlog of unemployment claims. Those benefits have been extended. You may receive questions from patrons about this. Here is a post from DPI explaining the extended benefits. 

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From Jennifer:

Registration for our 2021 Winter Reading Challenge is now open on Beanstack! 

Here is what you need to know:

• We are asking everyone to upsell this program to our patrons. Please be intentional about encouraging participation as you engage with the community.
• This program will run from January 1st - 31st. Registration is currently open.
• This program is virtual only. Community members can participate via Beanstack either through the Beanstack website or via the Beanstack app.
• This program is for all ages.
• Participants will be logging their reading minutes each day. The goal is 20 minutes daily for individuals. Our community goal is to reach 100,000 minutes.
• This year, Beanstack will be awarding the winning communities prizes from Simon and Schuster's Books Like Us program. Prizes will include book collections and virtual author visits. Ten (10) winning schools or libraries will each get a collection of fifty (50) books from the “Books Like Us” collection. 

Community members may be asking us questions on how to register or get started. You may find it helpful to review the videos shared from the Mind and Body Challenge about registration on both the website and the app.

Feel free to reach out to me or Heather Thompson if you have any questions about Beanstack or the challenge.

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Common Council approved our 2021 budget this past Tuesday. We have pretty much the same amount of money for 2021 as last year, which makes us a little luckier than most libraries in the state. If you watch our monthly stats sheet, you've noticed a gradual increase in people returning to the branches and curbside is increasing, as well. 2021 will be very interesting to watch as people get immunized and feel safe to return to public spaces. The infection rate is likely to continue to climb during the holidays but by January we may feel confident to extend our open hours into the evening. We will continue to make the best decisions we can to maintain service while keeping everyone as safe as possible.

As Library Director, I read and sign every single performance review and this year I am so pleased to read about all the ways that so many of you worked together and supported each other during this very trying year. I'm so proud of how KPL has pivoted and responded during the pandemic. And a huge thank you to everyone for sticking with the protective measures for all these months. I understand how annoying it can be to wear a mask all day, try to offer service behind plexiglas, and steer clear from others physically. Our hands are feeling the effect of all that washing and sanitizer. Yet you have diligently adhered to the health department guidelines and we have been able to keep our staff safe. THANK YOU!

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Barb