Stories from the Pandemic
By Booklist Associate Editor Heath Booth in Collaboration with Ingram
Featured in Booklist January 2021
Every one of us—every family, every neighborhood, and every library—has a pandemic story. They’re stories of tragedy and hope, worry and ingenuity. And at libraries across the country, they’re very often stories of service, neighbors, and connection.
In mid-March 2020, Johnston (IA) Public Library closed during the initial “flatten the curve” phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the chaos, Technical Services and IT Librarian Dreama Deskins was able to continue working in the building, receiving and processing new books from Ingram as the library’s selection team ordered books remotely. “We’re serving the community and a lot of people who really need our services. When we were closed, we would hear from patrons who were struggling with the idea of their whole lives changing overnight. And sometimes a book is just what you need—a new book you haven’t already read. I have felt all along that people may not think of books and reading as essential, but for some people during that time, they were. Knowing they were going to get books from the library was the thing that was keeping them sane in some scary times.”
Throughout the library’s closure to the public, Deskins communicated with her contacts at Ingram to ensure smooth continuity of service—at a pace her reduced staff could handle—while keeping staff as safe and patrons as content as possible. “Other vendors we worked with eventually sent emails saying they had to shut down. Ingram sent an email essentially saying the opposite. At that point, I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, if we weren’t using Ingram, we would be getting nothing!’” As selection librarians ordered books and patrons placed online holds, Deskins and her staff could track those holds and communicate with Ingram about quantities of new releases. In May, the library opened back up for curbside service, and those freshly cataloged lifelines to normalcy were ready to be picked up.
Pacing deliveries to the needs of individual library staffing situations is something all libraries had to figure out in the early days of last spring’s shutdowns—and then again as, state by state, library by library, the country started to open up again. But reopening was only part of the challenge. Libraries had a new landscape of staffing to consider—not just to keep everyone safe, but also to account for staff who were quarantined or unable to return to work.
“I was missing about 40 hours a week of workers,” Deskins said. “But with my reduced staff, we were still able to process and have those materials ready. If Ingram hadn’t been delivering materials, we would have been, my gosh, so far behind. It’s very hard to recover from that kind of backlog. I just really appreciated that Ingram kept going. That made all the difference. I felt fortunate that we were an Ingram customer.”
For many selectors at the Harford County (MD) Public Library, the pandemic meant a similar shift away from the library system’s 11 buildings. Librarians were teleworking and communicating with Materials Management and Technical Services Director Jennifer Ralston about their orders. “We didn’t know we were getting a pandemic this year,” said Ralston, “but because we had programs set up with Ingram, it made our telework much easier.” In a distanced working environment, selectors relied on online resources like those provided through Ingram’s iCurate® Coming Soon, standing orders, and Virtual Book Displays. “In a way, by partnering with them, it felt like we had more staff. All of these selection pieces can be time-consuming, so it’s really great to have that partnership,” said Ralston. “There’s so much on the website, so many resources for librarians; it all helps us when we’re teleworking.” Harford County’s partnership with Ingram predated their pandemic working conditions, smoothing the transition from in-person to remote work. These resources will keep the selectors connected to the tools they need, regardless of working conditions.
Easily maintain a relevant collection with iCurate®,
Ingram’s comprehensive collection development services.
Lisa Dick, Technical Services Manager at the Carmel Clay (IN) Public Library, just north of Indianapolis, echoes Ralston’s sentiments about the usefulness of having an “invisible” team member. When a selector ran into difficulty with some technical aspects of ordering, Dick contacted their Ingram rep, who provided simple and elegant solutions right away. “I can call him with just about anything, and he is on the ball for me. “Every time he’s come to visit us over the years, he has asked the questions, ‘What’s new? What’s going on in the organization?’ And he’s interested in all of it, not necessarily just the things that relate to Ingram’s products. I respect the fact that he approaches me with solutions.” But in doing so, Dick says, he is always mindful that the library staff are the experts in what they need and in which services best complement their workflows.
In 2020, libraries had no such thing as “business as usual.” As COVID-19 numbers rose and fell, new health information became available and safety best-practices shifted to suit the needs of communities, staff, and patrons. But for those libraries in the midst of building projects, 2020 was full of new and different challenges even before an unprecedented global health emergency.
When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, BookOps, the shared technical-services operation that serves the New York Public and Brooklyn Public Libraries, was in the process of supporting multiple Opening Day Collections (ODCs) for their vast network of over 150 libraries. “We completed one ODC during the pandemic, and we’re just about to start our second,” said Stephanie Anderson, Assistant Director of Selection at BookOps. The massive process is one that begins years before the new books hit the shelves, involving many departments, site visits, lots of shelf math, and, in the words of Michael Santangelo, BookOps’ Deputy Director for Collection Management, “the best librarians.”
But even with a stellar staff, challenges remain. “Our librarians have tremendous expertise,” said Santangelo. “They know their collections and love books, but it’s time we lack—so work with any vendor is priceless. We still want to maintain the selection role. We feel very strongly about that: we are the experts. But to have someone curating these choices for you...it’s important because time is (important).” Partnering with Ingram on an ODC during the pandemic meant Ingram was rerouting massive deliveries to open locations where they could be received and working with local delivery companies that understood the nuances of NYC neighborhoods and traffic. Santangelo notes that the partnership with Ingram on this project built on both organizations’ strengths. “It’s where our expertise meets their expertise and where our services meet their services. We had our own agency and we were going to maintain that, and [Ingram was able to] meet us there, knowing our needs and expectations.”
Throughout the ODC process, selectors who know their collection and patron needs—whether in New York City or Carmel, Indiana—can use Ingram’s custom curated ODC listsand processing services to make the best use of their abilities and time. Dick explains, “My philosophy is: everything that we can do to cut back on the amount of time in the technical services department is more time that can be dedicated to our services and programming and the things that the public sees and understands and identifies with as being ‘the library.’” Bob Swanay, Dick’s coworker and the director at Carmel Clay, expands, “Our technical services staff is twice as small as it used to be 20 years ago, and they do some great work outside of the department, which is an added value. You have to strike that balance of what is the right mix of your staff and their talents. Bringing in the efficiencies that you can achieve with partners like Ingram allows the staff to do things that no outsourcing could do.”
Just as libraries exist at the intersection of community needs, service and connection, Ingram has positioned itself to serve in the same support role for libraries by staffing its team with librarians who understand these needs. Ralston explains, “Our selectors say that they can tell librarians create the iCurate® and Virtual Display lists; it’s not just some random list. There’s a lot of thought behind creating a list that’s diverse and inclusive in addition to having starred reviews and titles with high print runs and topics that are the ‘meat and potatoes’ of public libraries.”
As public librarians and library workers across the country continue to face profound challenges during the pandemic, Ingram’s expertise and efficiency helps relieve the burden of the work in these uniquely difficult circumstances.The library community agrees on Ingram’s strengths as understanding core services, maintaining flexibility, and remaining dedicated to the essential role that libraries fill in the lives of their community members. Fulfilling patron expectations of a library requires a lot of work behind the scenes. “Our [technical services] department is the hard work that no one ever sees,” says Lisa Dick. And behind all of that hard work is the experience and supportive partnership Ingram provides, so that libraries can get back to what matters most—their communities.
From authors to publishers, retailers to libraries, manufacturers to printers—if books are your passion, Ingram helps you keep the whole world reading.