Podcast: Haverhill Library Director Moser Discusses Reopening with Curbside Pickup

Haverhill Mayor James J. Fiorentini with Haverhill Public Library Director Sarah Moser in 2015.


This week marks the beginning for some businesses and government buildings to open to the public, including the Haverhill Public Library.

Library Director Sarah Moser, a guest Wednesday on WHAV’s morning program, said the first phase of the reopening allows for curbside pickup.

“It’s a lot like doing something like DoorDash, or Instacart, where you’re calling us and you’re telling us what books you want, and we’re getting them ready for you. We have some designated spaces in our parking lot, and you call us when you get here and we run the books out to you. So, there’s very little interaction between us and the public and the staff will have a mask and gloves on, so we don’t have to worry too much about cross contamination,” she said.

And as the weeks go on, the library plans to offer the public more services.

“When we first start letting people back into the building, it’ll be restricted based on head count, so that we can only have a certain number of people in the building at a time.  We’ll have a lot of appointment-based services so that we can manage the number of people in the building. We will require people to wear masks, at least initially. We’ll have gloves available. So that it will definitely affect us in that way. We are going to be very careful about social distancing,” Moser said.

Moser is very enthusiastic about one of the remote tools—a YouTube channel—used by the Haverhill Public Library during the pandemic.

“It’s a good source, especially right now when you’re doing so many virtual things. It’s a great source to be able to put all of your virtual programming, so that people can go back to it and, as great as Facebook can be sometimes, it doesn’t have the same capacity to store things that YouTube does, so it’s been a great resource for us right now doing these virtual programs,” she added.

The library’s most recent programming may be seen at the YouTube channel, HPL Children.

Besides WHAV.net, WHAV’s “Merrimack Valley Newsmakers” podcasts are available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, Google Podcasts, TuneIn and Alexa.

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