Evanston’s new Robert Crown Library Branch is scheduled to reopen to the public on Saturday, Aug. 1, at 10 a.m. with enhanced safety and hygiene procedures in place to protect visitors and staff from COVID-19.
The branch inside the new Robert Crown Center at 1801 Main St. will be open for browsing and checkout of materials, picking up of holds and returning books. Access to computers and printing services will also be available, as well as an area for patrons with computers to access Wi-Fi. The Library’s outdoor reading garden will also be available with restrictions on capacity and social distancing requirements.
The branch will accept a maximum of 10 patrons simultaneously and visits will be limited to 60 minutes per patron. Visitors will receive a “time of entrance” sticker upon arrival.
The branch library hours will be Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 6 p.m., and Monday, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Library officials say they will take the following steps to create safe and healthy environment:
- Screen patron temperatures and keep a record prior to entrance.
- Clean and sanitize tech areas used by each individual patron after every use.
- Regularly clean and sanitize common areas such as counters, self check-out stations, shields and carts.
- Quarantine returned materials for at least 72 hours before they are handled by library staff or made available for other patrons to check out. (Items a patron returns will still show on the patron’s account during that 72-hour period.)
- Take staff temperatures before reporting to work and, while at work, wear face masks, observe safe social distance and regularly wash hands.
- Keep meeting rooms, study rooms, and play areas closed until further notice.
- Remove high-touch collections including newspapers and board games from use.
Visitors to the branch must follow these guidelines:
- Mandatory use of masks by all patrons (2 years old and up).
- Keep the time-of-entrance sticker visible at all times.
- Practice social distancing of six feet at all times while at the library.
- Place touched books on carts to be quarantined
- Returned materials will be accepted via the outside book drop only during our open hours.
The library staff recommends that if possible, only one person per household visit at a time. This maximizes the number of households able to access collections and services during capacity restrictions.
The Crown library opened on Feb. 29 and closed two weeks later due to the statewide shutdown over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 6,000-square-foot branch has free parking, bilingual staff, bilingual collections and a computer bar facing an outdoor reading garden.