13.1 Caldecott readers and pets

Children are to blame for some of your library’s sanitation problem, since they have yet to master basic hygiene. Oblivious of the concerns of parents and other adults in proximity, they cough and sneeze and explore their noses with tiny vigorous fingers that subsequently find their way into the latest Caldecott winner. Before they leave the library, they visit the washrooms and demonstrate a lack of aim that frustrates even the most hardened janitor.

Arriving home, they coat the pages of a library book with Grandma’s strawberry jam, which stiffens so as to ensure that nobody can open the book without tearing the paper. Children can also add multicolored stains that would defy identification in a forensic lab. What’s brown and red, and smells like an ancient cheese? (Answer: ancient cheese stored in an aforementioned grotty cavern.)

Household pets are notoriously unclean. Rover, a big loving brute, slobbers all over everything, and leaves his hair and dander between pages, in video cassettes and DVD containers, and on the delicate surfaces of CDs. Moggy the Siamese cat is tidier, but she can distribute almost as much hair as Rover.

13.2 Guilty as charged

The chief offender, however, is usually an adult.

“Kids and pets take the rap for a lot of damage and dirt in library items,” says Carol, a Vancouver children’s program coordinator. “I’m sure that they can be messy, but adults are responsible for the worst damage to books, and that’s true in most libraries.”

She refers to a business motivational video that a well-dressed gentleman returned to a branch earlier this year. The video stank of beer. The gentleman explained that his infant daughter had accidentally overturned his pint on the video.

“I didn’t believe it,” says Carol. “I think he blamed his child to get sympathy, so that we wouldn’t charge him for a new video. I hate to admit it, but librarians fall for this sort of fib all too often. We are within our rights to tell people that they are responsible for their children, and that parents must pay for the havoc that toddlers wreak. We can’t afford to let people get away with it.”

13.3 Back to you

Eventually patrons return soiled items to the library. Every day, dirt in different forms flows in through the front door and return slots. Ventilation systems allow pollution to mix with a library’s indoor air, and particles from motor vehicle engines settle on every indoor surface along with other dust. Moisture ingress causes mold to form along the edges of windows, and in wall and ceiling cavities that are almost impossible to clean.

But human beings are the source of most sanitation problems. No matter how careful you are in bathing and grooming yourself, you carry germs on your skin. You breathe out contagions and deposit viruses on every surface you touch. Also, since you eat, you excrete. This bodily function is not the sort of topic that appears on library school syllabi, but it is a matter of serious import in facility planning and design. The wrong choice of washroom layout or fixtures can lead to poor sanitation and higher cleaning bills. For example, trash receptacles should be large enough to contain used paper towels and anything else that patrons discard in washrooms. This is common sense. But often libraries install diaper-changing tables in washrooms without increasing the size and number of trash receptacles. The result is horrible, as receptacles overflow and the odor of soiled diapers wafts through public areas.

13.4 Food service

“There’s probably a correlation between the availability of food in a library’s immediate vicinity and the frequency of its washroom use,” says Brenda, a Toronto technical services librarian. “The situation can become especially unpleasant if there are multiple coffee shops in the area, or worse, pubs. Not only do you see a lot more litter on library property, your washrooms will be messier.”

Brenda suggests that the trend toward selling food in libraries is “a nice idea,” but that it will probably lead to lower sanitation levels and increasing cases of insect and rodent infestation.

“Rats are always a potential problem, and now we’re expected to serve them coffee and muffins,” says Brenda. “Assuming that patrons won’t drop bits of food on floors is naïve. It’s all very well for libraries to offer food service to patrons, but I doubt that many managers have considered the ongoing cost of pest control. Add moisture, and you’ll find silverfish under the furniture. And then there are cockroaches. Have you ever dealt with a patron who has witnessed a roach scurry across a table in a reference area? Sometimes they’re furious. It’s as if the library has insulted them with poor sanitation. Infestations can contribute to poor employee morale, too. Are those muffins in the foyer really worth all the grief?”

13.5 No respect for owls

Urban librarians are also concerned about the effects of pigeon populations on sanitation. Pigeons appear harmless, and people enjoy feeding them stale breadcrumbs on pavements outside libraries. But pigeons defecate freely. Flocks can deposit large amounts of acidic dung on roofs and windowsills, and around doorways. On a hot day, the resulting smell can become overpowering. Removing the stains is difficult and costly, and the question remains of how to discourage pigeons from returning.

“You can’t shoot them,” says Jerry, a Vancouver special librarian who has dealt with pigeons on his windowsills for years. “You can try to frighten them with loud noises, or you can install a fake plastic owl in their congregation area. But these measures aren’t effective for long. Our owl was covered with pigeon droppings a week or so after we installed it. Any solution will be temporary, including wire netting and other barriers. Even if you were permitted to cull pigeon populations with a shotgun, the survivors and their descendants would eventually come back. Attempts to get rid of them often don’t work. In my library, the best thing we can do is to clear away build-ups of droppings to control the smell.”

One small consolation in a world of unmovable wildlife: bookworms are rarely active in Canadian libraries. The cold climate does not allow them to thrive. Rare book departments hold numerous manuscripts and printed volumes scarred with wormholes, but living worms are uncommon. Should you discover evidence of a living worm, you can destroy it by wrapping the volume that it inhabits in heavy-duty plastic, and leaving it in a freezer for a few hours.

13.6 Pandemic influenza

The complexity of the sanitation problem can overwhelm you. There seem to be too many angles to consider, and too many tasks to complete just to keep your library at an acceptable level of cleanliness. Moreover, there are new aspects to take into account. For example, pandemic influenza. It might turn into a mass killer, or remain nothing more than a nuisance. But you are expected to prepare your staff members and facilities as much as possible for any kind of outbreak, deadly or mild. You must at least reduce the likelihood of contracting influenza in your buildings.

You should develop procedures to maintain good sanitation. Acknowledge the specific sorts of bad sanitation that exist at different sites, and realize that in many cases you can do no more than reduce the level of dirt, and not eradicate it.

13.7 Helpful measures

First, make sure that your janitorial services—in-house or contracted—are adequate. Maintenance staff should have their responsibilities clearly documented. It is not enough to ask them to clean a washroom. A set of specific tasks in the form of a checklist is the best way to describe cleaning duties.

Frequent—at many sites, daily—cleaning is advisable for objects that people touch in high-traffic areas: handrails, elevator buttons, telephone handsets, photocopier keys, and keyboards. This measure is especially important during outbreaks of influenza.

Second, ask patrons regularly and firmly to take good care of the items they borrow. On posters, brochures, and websites, warn them about the risks of handling foodstuffs near library books and other media. You need not be stern. In fact, a light-hearted request to patrons not to sprinkle the latest biography of Conrad Black with caviar and champagne is more memorable and effective than a plain demand for proper care of library property.

You should gently remind children that library books are wonderful things, and that all of us must keep them away from jam, peanut butter, bodily fluids, and Mr. Underbed. Everyone should strive to restrict Rover and Moggy’s access to print, unless it be newspaper used for protective lining.

13.8 Hand washing

Third, post signage regarding hand washing in all washrooms, including those for employees. Provision of adequate supplies of soap and towels is necessary, along with hand cream for employees. Antibacterial soap is not essential. Ordinary soap used with warm water will reduce bacteria on hands just as well as most antibacterial products. What is important is employees’ and patrons’ willingness to wash their hands thoroughly as a matter of course.

Feel free to advise everyone in your library not to cough and sneeze without covering mouths and noses. If people use paper tissue, they should deposit it in a trash receptacle, and not in an empty space on a shelf. Do not tolerate spitting anywhere on library property.

Fourth, if your library sells food, ask patrons to deposit napkins, sandwich containers, paper cups, cans and bottles, and other trash in a clearly marked receptacle, which should be emptied every business day. Libraries with larger food counters or cafeterias should arrange regular (i.e., quarterly) inspections with a pest control vendor.

13.9 Light and space

Fifth, regarding all facilities in the planning stage, either for new construction or renovation, architects and library managers should consider long-term sanitation issues, particularly in busy public areas. Washrooms must be well illuminated, with enough space to maneuver in cubicles and in urinal areas. The number of sinks and trash receptacles should be appropriate to the size of the building and its human traffic. Acceptable washroom design should not be taken for granted.

Remember that sanitation is a constant concern and not something that you can attend to once a year and forget the rest of the time. People will not stop coughing and wheezing and treating the washrooms carelessly; nor will they always use trash receptacles as they should. What is clean one moment is filthy the next, as a small child grabs a handrail, or her parent pounds a keyboard in the reference room. Anything that they—and you—come into physical contact, will get dirty. You may say that Lady Chatterley’s Lover is nothing to sneeze at, but inevitably readers will demonstrate otherwise.