Kudzu-Ops Mailing List: Re: Safe Handling of ILL materials

[Huff,Andrew Taylor (andrew.huff]

Hi All,

 

Since the virus has hit our city, we’re in the process of shutting down ILL operations for everything except electronic articles, so we’re probably taking extra precaution here.  We go lowercase for books tomorrow.

 

Sincerely,

 

Andy Huff, M.Sc.

(he/him/his) What it this?

ILL / RRS / HDS Coordinator | WMS Administrator

Systems Programmer IV

William F. Ekstrom Library (KLG)

University of Louisville

Louisville KY 40292

p.502.852.8751 (ILL) | 502.852.8715 (WMS)

f. 502.852.8753

 

 

From: Kudzu-Ops <kudzu-ops-bounces+andrew.huff=louisville.edu [at] aserl-lists.org> On Behalf Of John Burger
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2020 10:00 AM
To: Huff,Andrew Taylor <andrew.huff [at] louisville.edu>
Cc: Email lit for librarians supporting day-to-day operations of ASERL's "Kudzu" resource sharing program. <kudzu-ops [at] aserl-lists.org>
Subject: [kudzu-ops] Safe Handling of ILL materials

 

ASERL-ILL and Kudzu-Ops Friends:

 

I have received several questions about safe handling of ILL materials during the COVID outbreak – i.e., should libraries be concerned that COVID could be transmitted through contact with books that were used by a person with the virus.  CDC states the risk from physical surfaces is low, and not suspected to be a primary means of transmission. 

 

I also spotted this:  “We found that viable virus could be detected in aerosols up to 3 hours post aerosolization, up to 4 hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to 2-3 days on plastic and stainless steel. HCoV-19 and SARS-CoV-1 exhibited similar half-lives in aerosols, with median estimates around 2.7 hours.”

 

See cite:  https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.09.20033217v1

 

 

So – In an abundance (perhaps over-abundance) of caution, should our libraries modify their ILL processes to let items sit untouched for 12-24 hours after contact ‘with the outside world’ (e.g., returned by patrons, received from a shipper, etc.)? 

 

As y’all know, I am not a practitioner, just spit-balling this.  I welcome your constructive criticism.

 

 

 

--jeb

 

John Burger, Executive Director

Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL)

c/o Robert W. Woodruff Library

540 Asbury Circle, Suite 316

Atlanta, GA  30322

 

404-727-0137