Perri,
I was working on this exact same thing after the recent outages here at Christmas. Normally we would be open, but of course, it happened on the two days we were closed for the holiday. I would like to implement something in the future that would at least open up our community room and public restrooms (they are separate from the main library), and have it be a place like you said, to charge phones, warm up, get some water. I am thinking we could set up the laptops in there for people who don’t have their own technology as well. Also, we have a strong Friends group that may be able to provide some snacks, or perhaps local businesses could be set up ahead of time for emergency situations. I would like to develop an entire protocol and playbook for future emergencies too. I am thinking this might be a huge opportunity to set up a network across the state of resources between libraries as well. Perhaps there is even grant money in something like this?
Anyway, let me know if you get any good advice from someone that may already be doing this.
Thank you,
Lisa
Lisa Poignant Waskin
Director
Superior District Library
541 Library Drive
Sault Sainte Marie, MI 49783
906.632.9331 v
906.635.0210 f
http://joomla.uproc.lib.mi.us/SDL/
From: michlib-l-bounces@mcls.org [mailto:michlib-l-bounces@mcls.org] On Behalf Of Perri Saunders
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2015 1:52 PM
To: michlib-l
Subject: [Michlib-l] library as a comfort station
As winter weather approaches, we've talked about offering our library as a "comfort station", where patrons can charge phones/devices, use the computers, get warm, etc. if their power is out.
Does anyone offer this service to their community? We're trying to establish some guidelines of what to offer and when to open our doors, and I'd love to hear input from those who do this already.
Thanks for any advice you can offer!
Perri Saunders, Director
White Pigeon Township Library
102 N. Kalamazoo St., P.O. Box 399
White Pigeon, MI 49099
Phone 269.483.7409
Fax 269.483.9923
Brighten the corner where you are.