What an NCAA rule change might mean for junior hockey in Sask.
5h ago
Previously, WHL players were declared ineligible to play NCAA hockey in the U.S.
Library doors may remain physically closed to the public, but books and other materials that have been in a kind of limbo for two months can soon be returned, put on hold and checked out again.
Regina Public Library (RPL) started sending out highly anticipated emails on Wednesday and announced four branches will start accepting returns on Monday and open for curbside pickup on June 15.
The Central Library, the George Bothwell Branch at the Southland Mall, the Sunrise Branch at the Sandra Schmirler Leisure Centre and the Sherwood Village Branch will open up book return slots for the limited hours of Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
“Lots of people have books or other items, DVDs, CDs whatever in their possession that we’ve asked for them to hold on to for the last couple of months and they’re going to be itching to get that out of their hands,” said Kevin Saunderson, senior manager of corporate services for RPL.
Return slots will only be open for limited hours in order to have staff available to monitor the bins when they fill up and roll them into quarantine for three days before processing the materials.
While people are now encouraged to dig out any library books taking up space on their own shelves to return them, late fees remain cancelled indefinitely. People can expect to get good warnings when late fees do start up again; at this point, the earliest date would be sometime in July.
“We’ve got thousands of items that have been on hold shelves since we closed,” Saunderson said.
Saunderson said the library has continued to place items on hold for people by request online and he expects to see demand increase even more with this announcement.
“We will have identified spaces for people to wait in a lineup outside the door. When they get up to the door, they’ll show their library card and the staff member inside the door will scan that card, will go and get the items and put them in a bag and place them on a table outside the door,” Saunderson explained.
Saunderson said the library has been studying the question of what reopening will look like ever since it closed in March and has been watching other jurisdictions for ideas.
While technically libraries were never officially mandated to close, he said RPL put itself under the recreational facilities designation and will look to follow any guidelines offered by the government for Phase 4 of the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan.
Saunderson just finished a tour of the Central Library building with a design consultant to determine how and where to space out or limit seating, provide Plexiglas barriers or mark the floors for traffic flow and waiting. He is confident by the time libraries have a date to reopen under Phase 4 that the branches will be ready.
What a library visit will look like in an era of physical distancing is another looming question since they are normally places where people hang out for long periods of time, touch and browse through materials or use common work stations like computers.
“Not understanding what the full scope of restrictions are going to be under the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan, it’s hard to say exactly what we’re going to be allowed to do,” he said. “But we certainly understand that physical and social distancing is going to be a key component of that and that we need to be worried about the potential contamination of materials that we are giving out to people and that we’re handling.”
Saunderson said while the library is considering all options for safely reopening, the way the space will be used will be a challenging question with no firm answers at this point.