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During the summer months of 2020 we had left the ‘intelligent lockdown’ behind us, Covid numbers were down, life was looking up and we were preparing for re-opening the offices on a larger scale. Sure, we still had to think about how to do this safely and with regard for social distancing but we were all set to get back to our daily routine of actually getting dressed in the morning, busy commuter trains, not-so-great coffee from the machine, lunch walks to blow off steam about something or other… yes: life as we knew it!

As part of the Dutch Ministry of Culture, the Archives are held to rules and guidelines set by the Government in order to get the ‘all clear’ for allowing more people back to work. Mind you, the reading room and both exhibition rooms were already re-opened for the public since June – with the application of all relevant health and safety regulations. In order for all employees to work at the Archives again an extra risk assessment needed to take place. This also entailed a check on how to arrange a safe place to work whilst maintaining the 1.5 meter distance, use of cough screens, face masks, use of gloves, soap and hand wash, paper towels, walking directions in the hall way (one way if possible), posters about dos and warnings about don’ts. You all get the picture.

A lot of hard work was put in by the colleagues from facility management to comply with all requirements and when the plans were drawn up the long wait began. For the one thing that remained was a visit from a so called workplace hygienist to give the stamp of approval. This ‘stamp’ was mandatory! The only thing that lacked was a government body that knew where to find this person. We could not invite them over since not even the people who came up with this stamp of approval had any idea who they were talking about. It made for some necessary humor during meetings of the crisis team. Had anybody seen or heard from this hygienist already?! When after three weeks there was still no clue as where to find them, we made these suggestions:

The one in the white coat is me, Angela, and a colleague from the crisis management team is in the photograph on the right.

To be fair: the person was eventually found and contacted, and with some adjustments gave their approval. By that time the second Covid-19 wave had hit and currently we seem to be moving towards the 3rd… just know that we are ready when the time comes!

The CERL Security Network recently organised a programme of online meetings, some of it related to our COVID-readiness. We are very grateful that Angela Dellebeke was able to participate in an online conversion about the impact of COVID-19 on libraries/special collections. The other members of the panel were Jacqueline Lambert (Royal Library, Brussels and Chairman of the CERL Security Network), Foekje Boersma (Royal Library, The Hague), Frédéric Lemmers (Royal Library, Brussels) and Andrea Cappa (Biblioteca Nacionale Centrale, Rome).

The KBR Brussels provided staff with a covid-kit, including face masks

In a related event, CERL, together with the OCLC Research Library Partnership, organised an information session about the REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums (REALM) project. In the project it is investigated how long COVID particles stay on surfaces. This science-based information informs organisations about how materials can be handled to mitigate COVID-19 exposure to staff and visitors of archives, libraries, and museums. The recording (24 November 2020), slides, and links are posted on the OCLC event page.

Since 2017, the CERL Security Network has organised an annual summer school on security issues. This year we were not able to organise the event in Vienna has we had originally planned. We therefore asked members of the Security Network to record presentations that they gave at previous editions of the summer school, or record a new presentation.

The play list for these recordings is available here, and the presenters made themselves available for an online session where some 25 participants joined the Question and Answer session. The presenters were:

• Nina Korbu, National Library of Norway – In-house Collection Security
• Jarle Rui Aadna, Royal Library in Copenhagen – Two independent cultural institutions in one reading room
• Adrian Edwards, British Library – Missing item processes at the British Library
• Per Cullhed, Uppsala University Library – Security in the stacks – monitoring and risk assessment
• Jacqueline Lambert, Royal Library in Brussels – Working with the Quick Audit Tool.

This event was as a first, successful, attempt to organise an online information session about security issues. We hope that in years to come, when we plan to go back to organising real life summer schools somewhere in Europe, these physical events can be combined with online events such as these. Either way, we look forward to seeing you there!

The National Archives in The Hague, with screens on the information desk

More information about the CERL Security Network is available here.