Oops! I missed this one: Good Afternoon! We began using UVC lights two weeks ago, and I asked our Librarian Assistant who has spearheaded the project to share his thoughts. My thoughts: We at Allen Park have looked into UVC lights to sanitize our materials coming back into the library. We had relied on 4-7 day quarantines per the REALM studies, but the news that UVC is able to sterilize viruses made us consider using the UVC lights instead of the full quarantine. With object to person transmission being a very small vector of transmission for COVID-19, we are comfortable with using the lights as a precaution. Columbia University Irving Medical Center released a report in June that far-UVC light is effective at sterilizing coronaviruses, including COVID-19, so we use UVC lamps with a 254 wavelength mercury bulb. I have not seen any contradicting reports that COVID-19 is unaffected by far-UVC. These lights are harmful to humans, however, so our quarantine room has a sign on the door showing that the lights are in use and to not enter the room until the full 30 minute lamp cycle is completed. UVC is still a light, it cannot sterilize surfaces it cannot touch. We currently do 2 30-minute cycles hitting most of the exterior surfaces of the books. We do not run a cycle on each individual page. The areas of the book people are most likely to touch are the covers and edges of the pages so again, we are comfortable with this method to control exposure for our patrons. Being able to reduce our quarantine time down to 'next-day' use of materials has increased usage of the library, and unless a new study is released showing object to human transmission is rising, or that far-UVC light is not as effective as reported initially, we will continue with this as our primary sanitation method for objects. We do not allow public access to the building at this time, we do not have the capacity to sterilize the building with our small lamps, so I cannot speak to the cost-effectiveness of using the lights for more than just object sterilizing. -- Sharon Crotser-Toy Director *Watervliet District Library* 333 N. Main Street Watervliet, MI 49098 269-463-6382 Connects People, Inspires Ideas, Transforms Lives