Swine Flu and the Public Library

First of all,  I realize I need to call this current outbreak by its official name – H1N1 flu.  So how does this relate to our suburban public library?  Well, we just got word that there is a “probable” case of flu in our local high school and now all the community schools are closing for the next two days while they determine if it’s a confirmed case.  We’ll find out on Tuesday if they plan to stay closed the usual fourteen days that we’ve seen in other local school districts. With over twenty schools involved in this massive closing ,  you can only imagine the total number of students who are missing classes!!

Will the library close – of course not !!  We will become the unofficial babysitters for all the children (K-12)  whose parents work and don’t have daycare.  Besides, there are far too many patrons in our community who have come to rely on the library for free Internet access for job search and filing unemployment claims.  What will result is a stretching of our staff to care for the needs of the regular patrons as well as controlling our bored students who would rather be anywhere else in the world other than a library – perhaps even in school!  It will be an interesting two days or more…  In the meantime, we’ll be doing lots of hand washing.