Greensburg Hempfield Area Library reopens with covid-19 restrictions

Patrons browsed the shelves Monday at the Greensburg Hempfield Area Library for the first time in months.

“It’s been going very well, people are happy to be back in, and everybody has been very pleasant,” said Diane Ciabottoni, assistant to the library director.

The Greensburg Hempfield Area Library and the affiliated Youngwood Area Public Library reopened this week with limited hours and other coronavirus-related restrictions.

Patrons are asked to limit browsing to 15 minutes.

Masks are required. The library has masks available for those who don’t bring their own. People who can’t wear masks are asked to use the curbside pickup service, which is available by appointment, rather than coming into the library.

The children’s department is closed, though a selection of children’s material is on display on the main floor.

Staff decided to keep the children’s area closed as an extra virus safety measure, Ciabottoni said.

“We’re very concerned about (children’s) safety, and we just think it’s safer for them to not be in the children’s area right now,” she said.

Tables, chairs, newspapers and magazines are off-limits. Computers are available by appointment and will be sanitized between uses.

Library staff put a lot of time and thought into the library’s reopening conditions, Ciabottoni said.

“We took longer because we just wanted to make sure everyone and the staff was safe, but also so that all of our patrons could be safe,” she said. “We did it step by step, we were very cautious, but we knew we had to open.”

The library would get between 400 and 600 patrons a day before the pandemic. Ciabottoni didn’t have a count of Monday’s visitors, but it was well below those levels.

“We don’t have anything close to that now,” she said.

Occupancy is limited to 25, including staff. That means only 10 to 12 patrons can be in the building at the time. The limit never became an issue Monday, Ciabottoni said.

“People come, get what they want, and they leave,” she said.

Restrictions could be gradually relaxed depending on how the first few weeks of its reopening go, she said.

Westmoreland County libraries have taken different approaches to the pandemic, according to Cesare Muccari, executive director of the Westmoreland Library Network.

“Not all of them are completely open, but most of them have been doing curbside service,” Muccari said.

Some libraries are open by appointment only, including Murrysville, which implemented its new system Monday. Patrons can call ahead to schedule a 30-minute appointment.

The Norwin Public Library in Irwin reopened a few weeks ago with what Diana Falk, library director, calls a “soft opening” with little fanfare.

As word of the library’s reopening has filtered through the community, Falk said “we are seeing more and more people.”

For those who still do not want to go inside the library, patrons can place circulation materials on hold for curbside pickup, Falk said.

As part of the covid-19 precautions libraries are taking to prevent the spread of covid-19, Falk said hand sanitizers have been placed in the building, including at the entrance. The computers have been moved from a table where they were in close proximity to each other, to a spacious community room, where the users can be socially distant as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control.

Jacob Tierney and Joe Napsha are Tribune-Review staff writers. You can contact Jacob at 724-836-6646, jtierney@triblive.com or via Twitter @Soolseem. You can contact Joe at 724-836-5252, jnapsha@triblive.com or via Twitter @jnapsha.