Library Goals

I think goals have probably changed a lot in the 6 weeks of lockdown. Before the lockdown, my goals were to keep the library ticking over, to catalogue everything, to increase readership, to finally have a clue about what stock we have and where, and dispose of the unwanted material in a sensible way. If I were overreach, my goals would be to have a new reading room which is spacious and welcoming, always open and always full! To have shelves which people could browse once again, and full of interesting things. To make the link between the material on the shelves and the objects in the museum much clearer.

Now?

We have no idea what we're returning to. We know that the "normal" of pre-coronavirus can no longer exist. Museums need visitors to survive, so many want lockdown to end as soon as possible, but the last thing we want is a second wave, so there will no doubt be measures that we'll need to take. So what will my goals be then?

I think a lot of the higher goals are gone - always full is great when there aren't deadly viruses about. I suspect we'll need to be a lot more stringent about visitors, and stop anyone who doesn't have an appointment from coming in. Appointments will have to be stricter on time, so that there's no overlap between people and will we still be able to have our volunteers coming into the same space?

Documentation is still a big thing though, so the cataloguing will continue, the collection management... And I still dream that one day we might even do a stocktake!