Lambton County cultural services prepare for limited reopening

Most of the 120 workers laid off in March when COVID-19 restrictions closed Lambton County’s libraries, museums, art gallery and public archives have been recalled to work, although the cultural facilities remain closed to the public.

Andrew Meyer, general manager of the county’s cultural services division, said approximately 100 employees had been recalled, as of Friday.

The county’s 25 libraries, two museums, art gallery and archives were among services ordered to closed by the provincial government in March.

Meyer said 16 permanent cultural services staff remain on layoff, “primarily because their roles are associated with program delivery, or things like the bookmobile, or community outreach, and given the restrictions, they have not been reactivated.”

Some casual workers also remain on layoff, and students who work part time in libraries are not on the job, Meyer said.

Some cultural services staff were offered work in other departments, including helping with visitor screening at the county’s long-term care homes.

In early June, the county library began a “contactless” curbside service at 13 locations where library users could order books for curbside pickup. Some 1,221 library patrons used the service in its first week to borrow 4,317 items, the cultural services division said in a report.

Library staff also processed more than 12,000 items returned to libraries in that first week, when limited services resumed.

Additional staff were recalled from layoff in the last week to prepare for the return of services allowed now that Lambton County has entered Stage 2 of the province’s program for restarting services interrupted by the pandemic.

“Based on the success of the curbside implementation, we’ve proven that we can adapt our services to the lifting of restrictions and look at innovative ways to provide services,” Meyer said.

Recalled staff are focusing on “incorporating the province’s requirements into our workplaces before we reopen to the public,” he said. “We’re taking the next few weeks to prepare.”

At its libraries, the county will continue offering curbside pickup of materials, and it is looking at providing “limited and scheduled” access to public computers and reference services, Meyer said.

Under the province’s rules, museums, archives and art galleries can reopen under Stage 2, with restrictions that include timed entry, limits on numbers of visitors allowed, managed visitor flow and recording visitors’ information to help with contact tracing by public health officials.

“With staff back to work, we’re putting in place some of those procedures to invite the public back into our spaces, but we’re a few weeks away from that yet,” Meyer said.

“I think the important thing is to take the time we need to get it right, and to make sure that we’re offering services in a manner that’s safe and aligned with public health efforts to contain the spread of COVID.”

The county operates the Lambton Heritage Museum in Lambton Shores, the Oil Museum of Canada in Oil Springs, the county archives in Wyoming and the Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery in downtown Sarnia. All of those venues were closed to the public in March, along with the library branches the county operates in its 11 municipalities.

While libraries have been closed, access to digital books, and other material, remained available online. The county report said the services have seen some of their highest use during the pandemic.