Photo by Andrew Caldicott
By Amelia Tarallo
Hometown Weekly Staff
The Dover Town Library (DTL) celebrated its official reopening on Thursday, July 1. The furniture has been returned to its usual spots. Computer stations are back open. Guidelines for mask use are posted at the door. For the first time in over a year, the library seems to be on its way back to a normal routine.
Smiling patrons entered the library on the day, greeting and chatting with staff at the circulation desk. For staff, reopening means seeing the patrons they haven’t seen in over a year. “I see my staff. They have been excited about planning and preparing. It’s been wonderful to watch them and see how much they missed the public, and how much they anticipated the excitement of it. There isn’t anyone on staff who hasn’t been totally thrilled,” said DTL Director Cheryl Abdullah. “It’s a welcomed event.”
Many of the precautions taken during the height of the pandemic will be disappearing from the DTL. However, a few programs launched during the pandemic will be sticking around for the foreseeable future. Adults and young adults who love the Zoom format will be happy to know that it’s here to stay. “We’re not seeing that going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, we were preparing to do those kinds of things before the pandemic even hit,” explained Abdullah. “It’s nice. The very first time we did a Zoom program, we had people from California attend a program. That never would have happened otherwise. The whole idea of the library is to push walls down in a way so that people have more access to information any way you can.” Since launching Zoom programming, staff has been joined by Californians, Arizonans, and even a student attending from China.
While kids programs will be seeing a hiatus from Zoom, many will be moving outside during the summer. Popular activities like Super Awesome Fun Time, one of the most popular children’s activities at the DTL, have already made the transition to the outdoors.
The curbside pick-up service is also sticking around. “We were going to offer curbside for the elderly, for moms with babies. It’s a convenience that we will continue,” says Abdullah. Those who want to take advantage of the service can use their library card to sign up on the Dover Town Library website. Adding to the easiness, the library also has new self-checkout stations. Downstairs, kids can now use their library cards to check out books from a robot-themed station.
Patrons are just as ecstatic as staff to be back in the library as the staff. Rob Andrews, a longtime DTL visitor, came on opening day with his two kids, who were both ecstatic to be back in the building. “My kids have been counting down the last few weeks,” said Andrews. First on the to-do list was having his kids sign-up for their library cards. “I’ve been taking them to Super Awesome Fun Time since they were in their bucket car seats, so [they] don’t remember not being in this space. The pandemic was really hard, because it was like they took our second living room away from us.” On their first day back, the kids already had a bountiful stack of books to read, including a few from the "Warrior" series, Pokémon graphic novels, and a few titles from "The Unicorn Rescue Society" series.
Since the DTL's doors shut during the pandemic, visitors have been waiting for them to again be unlocked. Now that they are, patrons and staff have a bit of pre-pandemic normalcy back in their lives. Though the library has a few new additions, the most important things remain the same: a caring and ecstatic staff, a warm and welcoming library, and an openness to new, progressive changes. As they have throughout COVID-19, these unique qualities continue to make the DTL an iconic Dover spot.
