Taunton Public Library lives on in post-Covid world

by Sam Schumacher

Covid-19 has drastically affected the world in ways that were unimaginable just one year ago. Few organizations have faced a more difficult transition than that old-fashioned, very physical institution known as a public library.

The pandemic has forced librarians at the Taunton Public Library to change how patrons find and check out books over the last year, forgoing physical interaction in favor of online browsing and curbside pickup.

“It’s been very difficult for us—we had to adapt quickly,” TPL librarian Ms. Linda Coelho said. “What we did forever changed very quickly, and we had to figure out, ‘What do we do to get books into people’s hands?’”

Back in March of last year, the pandemic struck the library with a fierce blow, shuttering its doors completely for the first month. Now, a year later, the effects of this loss of patronage still linger.

“We were completely closed during the first quarantine,” Ms. Coelho said. “And I think it’s going to take a long time after COVID to get back up to the traffic we had before.”

Patrons are still only allowed to come to the library to pick up books that they have reserved in advance—online, by phone, or by using the library’s app. Browsing through the stacks and sitting down to read will have to wait, stripping the library of its magic and preventing it from being anything beyond a place to take out books.

“We’re a unique business, where we’re not a place where people come, do their business, and leave—there’s a social aspect to it,” Ms. Coelho said. “It was educational, social, recreational—that’s really what it means to the community.”

The coronavirus has forced the library to adapt more quickly than ever before and has transformed the way that it conducts business with patrons in a way unparalleled since the computerization of the card catalog decades ago. The app that people can use to select books from the catalog had already been developed before the pandemic, but TPL librarians never expected to require all patrons to reserve books remotely.

Unlike the lending of books, some of the library’s typical offerings cannot be replicated in a socially distanced world—notably, access to the children’s room. This area, opened in 1959, provided a space for children to feel welcome and at home in the library.

“For me, coming here as a kid, I read far more than my parents could be buying me all these books,” Ms. Coelho said. “For some kids, they don’t have access to these things anywhere else.”

The year 1978 brought a $350,000 addition to the library that included an expanded children’s room, the reference area, and the auditorium. The library later added publicly accessible computers and a photocopying service, demonstrating its willingness to adopt new technology. Through all of these changes, though, the appeal of the library’s books has remained.

“Some people still don’t have Wi-Fi at home—they might come for the Wi-Fi and the computers—but for the kids that have all that, they come for the books,” Ms. Coelho said. “Nothing bad ever happens from reading new books—you can get a broader mind, tolerance, new ideas, a different way of thinking.”

Although the current state of the world has made many of the library’s physical resources unavailable, technology and the adaptability of the library have enabled its full collection of over 175,000 books to remain accessible to the public. Nevertheless, the experience of entering a library, staring in awe at the vast expanse of books inside, and perusing them before making a selection is, for now, a distant memory.

The library building itself, constructed on Pleasant Street over a century ago, now stands seemingly neglected in today’s socially distanced world, with only librarians allowed to visit for more than a few minutes at a time. For the patrons, it currently serves as little more than a place to pick up books that have already been discovered through a screen.

But the library lives on. This library, reliant on humanity’s love for reading and the physicality of holding a book in one’s hands, has survived through the digital era and will survive through this pandemic as well. The librarians will never allow this hub for learning and the sharing of knowledge to die. As it has for the last 118 years, the library will live on—it will thrive in this unprecedented age.

“I can’t say it’s always been smooth,” said Ms. Coelho, “but we figured it out.”

And that is all that the library needs.