Dear Members,
You’ll have seen the news from the Government yesterday confirming permission to reopen libraries from the 4th July. After consultation between Trustees and staff, we are happy to say that Morrab Library will be able to reopen with a limited service from Wednesday July 15th.
This gives us time to bring staff back from furlough, to establish necessary procedures, and undertake a deep clean of the library in the weeks prior to this. The necessity to keep staff, volunteers and members as safe as possible is our first priority, and we will need to work within the context of health and safety legislation and best practice guidelines for libraries to achieve this. So please bear with us as we take a careful and steady approach over a period of time to try and get everything back on track.
More details will follow very soon, but for now, please be aware that initially, the library will be open three days a week – Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, from 10.00am to 3.00pm by appointment only, and only for loans and returns. You will need to call or email ahead to book a time to visit, as we will need to manage the numbers in the building at any one time and ensure social distancing, which at least for now, will remain at 2 metres to mitigate any risk to our members.
We’ll be able to take bookings for appointments from Tuesday 7th July, and more information will follow soon. We do envisage a busy first rush, so we may need to beg your patience as things settle down.
Once we have established safe processes, we will then, as quickly as possible, look to reopen the rooms upstairs for members to work in. This will also work on an appointment system. The opportunity to host classes and workshops will be reviewed over the summer, based around future Government guidance.
It will be wonderful to see you again, although please be aware that we will need to work to very strict guidelines, at least initially. We will do everything we can to restore the library to full service in due course. Please keep an eye out for more detailed information about our reopening over the next week.
Many thanks for your wonderful support throughout all of this.
Take care,
The Trustees and Library team