EAST CENTRAL — Wapiti libraries in the province have announced they will close all of its branches to lower the spread of Covid-19.
The closures will take effect on March 20, and will be reassessed on April 14.
Tony Murphy, Wapiti Regional Library’s regional director said that they wanted to close on tandem with the K-12 schools.
“If the provincial and federal governments are suggesting these moves, particularly our provincial government with school closures, it seems prudent to do the same thing with libraries,” Murphy. “We have co-located locations to, so if the schools close that’s going to affect some of our branches anyway.”
This announcement came on March 16. Previously in the day, Wapiti suspended all programs and library events in order to better protect the region’s more vulnerable library users.
Due dates for physical materials will be extended, and fines on library materials will be waived retroactively from March 13.
Library patrons are asked to hold onto borrowed material until they reopen.
A variety of online services, including the province-wide Library2go collection of e-books and e-audiobook, are available to patrons at wapitilibrary.ca.
“We try to put the health and safety of our patrons first as one of our first priorities and that’s a part of that.”
