'Oh my goodness': Vaughan libraries see huge spike in demand during COVID-19 pandemic

Many branches' digital services saw demand triple, at least, during coronavirus lockdown

Yorkregion.com
June 10, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Vaughan Public Libraries (VPL) have developed a whole new digital delivery service model after closing their branches three days before Ontario declared a state of emergency due to COVID-19 on March 17.

VPL introduced curbside pickup for their vast selection of books in mid-May, and they are planning to “enhance the exterior WiFi” around their libraries to allow parked cars access to fast internet connection, said Margie Singleton, VPL’s CEO.

What transpired before Singleton’s eyes surpassed her expectations.

So far, more than 130,000 books have been borrowed by Vaughan citizens, Singleton said in amusement.

“Oh my goodness, when they start to return them, it's gonna be a landslide,” Singleton said, who added that she reads “sappy romances and grisly murders” for pleasure.

Once returned, these books are expected to be isolated for 72 hours so they are safer to handle, since “the COVID virus doesn't live for long on materials.”

“We even had one customer who asked for 90 books,” Singleton said, adding how people are coming to collect books not just for themselves but for their entire families as COVID-19 limits their broader activities amid social distancing guidelines.

On the digital front, the use of VPL’s ebooks is now “three times greater than it was a year ago,” said Singleton.

At VPL, people can download their e-videos free of charge. That saw people downloading “four times as many in this year as the same period last year,” Singleton said.

Their Tumblebooks database -- digital books recorded for children -- has seen demand rise by four and a half times this year compared to last.

For adults who want to hone their skills -- to learn video editing, for example -- by using Lynda.com, that too saw a tripling of increase in demand.

The Vaughan Public Libraries also have PressReader, a database that has 4,000 full-content newspapers from 100 different countries in 60 different languages. “(The) use of that is three times greater than the same period last year,” she said.

“So people perhaps used to come to the library and read the newspapers; now they're reading them online. It's been really amazing to see this shift.”

But it also seems that people are using more children’s ebooks, especially amid the school closures. “In 2019, 10 per cent of our ebook use was children’s materials, whereas since the closures the proportion has risen to 20 per cent of ebook use being for children’s materials,” she said.

Last year, about 80 per cent of ebook use was for adult materials, but it has gone down by 10 per cent this year.

“I would say without hesitation that people are probably reading to their children more than they did before,” she said.

For teens, the trend is unchanged. About 10 per cent of ebooks borrowed in both 2019 and 2020 were teen materials.

However, before one gets too excited about the good news of how people are making use of their local libraries, VPL had to lay off or approve declared emergency leave for about 62 per cent of its staff three weeks after its closure.

This meant that “all of our part-time and casual staff are currently either laid off or on declared emergency leave.”

And it also meant working far more for the remainder of the staff.

“Every procedure you had has to be rethought and redeveloped, and every service has to be reimagined,” she said.

It’s also a challenge for librarians and the information team who suddenly have to adjust lighting, for example, and feel comfortable in front of their cameras for the digital storytimes that are still ongoing.

“Isn’t it different?” she added. “People are broadcasting storytimes from their homes.”

With the occasional zany moments when cats bomb storytime sessions, Singleton described how “our staff, every one of them, is stepping outside their comfort zone, and they're doing things they never thought they could do.”

While VPL programs have dwindled in comparison to last year for the month of April, viewership online has spiked sharply. In 2019, VPL offered 353 programs, but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic means that these libraries are now offering only 77 -- digital -- programs.

“We had 8,851 people attend these 353 programs in 2019. Here we are in 2020, with no physical building for them to come to ... we have 15,849 people who either participated live or viewed the recording of the program within the first 24 hours.”

Singleton also gave a big tribute to her staff, whom she praised for “taking risks” and being ever “so creative."

“It's absolutely amazing,” she said.