Bookriot: “For institutions ranked among the most trustworthy and beloved, it’s shameful how the individuals who comprise libraries are treated as disposable. As the pandemic lurches forward, more and more libraries are doing something unexpected during a period of time when the digital services they provide are vital: they’re laying off workers or pushing them into alternate emergency jobs for which they’re untrained or unqualified. Librarians in Hennepin County, Minnesota, were told they could be assigned to work in hotel-based homeless shelters, while other systems nationwide like Cuyahoga County, Ohio, laid off or furloughed hundreds of their employees. In libraries that are still operating, things aren’t business as usual, either. Some libraries have their staff working entirely from home, while others have their doors shut to the public but are having staff report. Those operating with staff in the building run the gamut in terms of what they’ve provided their employees in terms of health and safety protection. Some have masks available, while others have simply dropped materials like paper towels, tissue, and other poor substitutions for cotton masks and expected employees to make do…”

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