A small, rural public library, we have public restrooms. In pre-pandemic times, our restrooms were not kept locked, and were cleaned once a day by our building's maintenance person.
Like many of you, I have had to tackle a lot of previously unaddressed conundrums since March of 2020. Especially when it involved developing a Safety Plan, this "tackling" has required research, patience, a good sense of humor, and lots of flexibility.[1]
My library's reopening plan calls for not allowing group meetings/ programs for a time.
I have been looking at some of my post-COVID "Ask the Lawyer" responses, and they are pretty grim. Such serious writing.
Of course, these are serious days, and operating during COVID-19 is a serious topic.
But I have been on the lookout for a chance for some joy, if not some outright levity. And finally, this question supplies one!
We got lucky: an employee, who was asymptomatic at work but tripped one of the screening factors requiring him to stay home, was tested and found NEGATIVE for COVID-19.
Our employee is coming back to work, but I have been wondering...what if the test came back POSITIVE? If we have to quarantine all our employees, we'd be shut down completely!
First: that is good news about your employee.
Second: a gold star to your library for having a screening system that works, and for following the requirement to restrict an employee who trips a screening factor from on-site work while waiting for test results.
Third: Let's talk about your alternate scenario (the one where you don't get such good news).
Should a board of trustees vote on their institution’s COVID-19 Safety Plan? Or should the adoption of the Plan be left entirely to the institution’s director or executive director?
Who is “in charge” of a library’s safety plan--the trustees, or the director?
It’s tricky, but if you bear with me, you will get an answer.
I work at a public library that is gradually reopening to the public. We employ quite a few librarians who trend older and have underlying health conditions. Many of these staff have been working remotely for the past few months, but not necessarily on tasks essential to their positions.
This is a heart-breaking question, and I am sure it has been a hard process to get to this phase in your operations and planning.
In regards to COVID-19 when libraries do reopen, (and allow people in) is it advisable to ask customers to leave the public building if they are exhibiting any visible COVID symptoms? If so, are there benchmarks for how extreme symptoms should be or how policies should be worded?
As the member writes, it is very difficult to determine if some physical factors—coughing, a flush, seeming malaise—are in fact symptoms of COVID-19. Confronting a patron with suspected symptoms can also lead to concerns impacting community relations, privacy, and the ADA.
I was recently contacted by my employer stating that someone had applied for unemployment benefits using my Social Security number name and Job title. My employer notified me by email to be aware of this but stated that they conducted a security audit and found that there was no breach on their end and that the matter was currently being investigated by the department of labor and FBI.
For this answer, we are again joined by Jessica Keltz, associate attorney at the Law Office of Stephanie Adams, PLLC.
[Submitted from a SUNY Library]
This is a deep array of questions, requiring a deep array of answers.
But let’s start with the basics.
There are 64 SUNY campuses, some with more than one library.
Is it permissible to make digital copies of choral music that is legally owned by the institution to students in choral and instrumental ensembles? Some students may be studying remotely and mailing physical copies may result in lost or non-returned copies.
There are four ways it can be permissible:
In the spring, it was clear academic libraries providing digital resources were in a state of emergency and fair use restrictions were loosened.
This fall, we are asked to plan for face to face learning, but we may be asked to turn on a dime and provide digital resources overnight if a student or faculty member in a course is unable to attend class.
Before I answer this question, I do have to emphasize: as I wrote here, fair use was not modified during the height of the initial pandemic closures. Further, there is no case law or regulatory guidance indicating things will be any different if we have to return to the level of lockdown experienced this Spring.
