Pikes Peak library doors open again, and that’s such good news | David Ramsey
The door opened. In our strange COVID-19 summer, seeing an open door was such good news.
Branches of the Pikes Peak Library District opened Wednesday, ending 3½ months of closed doors. On Thursday morning, a couple minutes after Library 21C opened, I walked through the doors into a wonderland.
If you’re not a library devotee, please realize how many of us are devoted to our libraries. The Pikes Peak Library District boasts 278,223 cardholders. In 2019, cardholders and guests visited PPLD branches 3.1 million times and checked out 8,275 million items. Librarians answered 362,100 reference questions, and 267,701 residents attended library program.
I’m a fan. In normal times, I walk into Library 21C at least twice a week to check out books, return books, use the copier, survey the recorded book section, sit to read a magazine or eat lunch on the patio. On each visit, I see a cross section of Colorado Springs. Libraries, literally, bring us together.
The threat of COVID-19 forced closure of PPLD branches March 16. In the coming months, PPLD CEO John Spears worked at his quiet office in the downtown Penrose branch, which is usually packed. (And before some of you sprint to a keyboard to send me an email, please know that I realize the crowds at Penrose include our homeless brethren.)
Spears said the peaceful atmosphere at his office was “very odd.” He missed his co-workers, and he missed the bustle of the downtown branch.
“You know, it was hard. I’ll say that,” Spears says. “It was very hard.”
He pauses.
“I’ll be honest, it was hard not to be sad knowing the number of people who needed us and knowing we weren’t available to them. It wasn’t a good feeling.”
COVID-19 has robbed us of simple, everyday joys. We can’t go to the movie theater. For weeks, restaurants were shut down. And for months, our library doors didn’t open.
When we do venture out of the house, it can seem at least slightly reckless. When I recently attended church services, it was both an uplifting and uneasy feeling to listen to words from the Bible while sitting in a crowd.
The same happy yet uneasy feeling was there when walking through the 21C branch.
But PPLD leaders were careful before opening doors. They talked in depth with El Paso County health officials, and it shows. Entry has been limited. So has seating. With the setup at 21C, it will be hard to get within 6 feet of another cardholder.
We might be in a temporary lull. COVID-19 cases are rising, with record new cases. Anthony Fauci — America’s doctor — openly wonders if new cases will hit 100,000 a day. We have not escaped our crisis. We are not even close.
I hope our library doors remain open, even as I realize the bleak truth that they might again close.
“We’re passionate about what we do,” Spears says of his library staff. “For us it’s not a job, it really is something that we believe in. We offer something that is valuable to the community, and when we can’t provide that value in the same way we used to, it’s not a good feeling.”
For now, the PPLD machine is back at close to full service.
Long may it run.
Just in time for summer reading ABOVE: Kekoa Horn, 6, decides which books to check out while visiting Library 21c at 1175 Chapel Hills Drive with his family. After 15 weeks of being closed because of COVID-19, the Pikes Peak Library District opened its facilities Wednesday. RIGHT: Hyun Sook cleans a workstation at Library 21c.
Pikes Peak Library District’s new Library 21c in Colorado Springs opens June 21, 2014. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)