Farah Javed and Reuven Blau write: “The book was closed at 25 libraries throughout the city on January 10 due to staffing shortages, forcing some New Yorkers to stand outside in the cold for Wi-Fi. The city’s three public library systems—New York, Brooklyn, and Queens— have scrambled the past two weeks to keep open their 207 branches across the five boroughs as scores of librarians and other support staffers called out sick with COVID-19 or related quarantines.” A renewed wave of pandemic closures and limited operations is happening across the US and Canada, from York County (Pa.) Libraries to Fairfax County (Va.) Public Library to Toronto Public Library.
The City, Jan. 10; York Dispatch, Jan. 7; WTOP-FM (Washington, D.C.), Jan. 10; Globalnews.ca, Jan. 4