From WebMD:

 

Paper
The length of time varies. Some strains of coronavirus live for only a few minutes on paper, while others live for up to 5 days.

 

You cannot assume that the virus is dead after only three days, especially in closed books where air cannot circulate and where there is little to no light, including UV, and especially in dark material return bins.  Even disinfecting UV lights may have a very limited effect on disease eradication depending on how potentially affected materials are arranged.  Extreme caution should be taken at all times.  Do you know exactly when each book or other tactile material was returned to your return bins?  Three days or three minutes ago?

 

I am not disagreeing with Gary; he may indeed be correct, and I certainly do not know any better than he does.  However, the research is not conclusive (WebMD is only a reference source and is not conclusive either.  Any librarians with a science degree willing to perform a study of how long Covid-19 survives in libraries? That should be published easily in one of our journals if done correctly.).  This study in the New England Journal of Medicine tested cardboard, but not paper, and certainly not paper enclosed in a book.  However, the researchers found that “On cardboard, the half-life of SARS-CoV-2 (i.e., Covid-19) was longer than that of SARS-CoV-1.” You cannot expect that one second after 36 hours is up that all instances of the virus are dead, regardless the surface.  Exercising extreme caution and sanitation, as Gary states through the use of hand sanitizer and/or washing, is still the best route to go. 

 

There is a reason that the U.S. has an additional one million cases of Covid-19 than the country with the next most cases in the world.  This has not been taken seriously enough in this country.  Over 77,000 American dead in a little over two months with another nearly 17,000 serious, critical cases ongoing means this is not “just a ‘flu”.  Every major organization in this country, libraries particularly, have a role in mitigating this virus.

 

Frank

 

Frank Lambert, Ph.D., MLIS

orcid.org/0000-0002-1446-2957

Assistant Professor & Program Coordinator

Master of Library Science Program (NCATE accredited, and CAEP eligible, through 6/30/2022)

https://www.mtsu.edu/programs/library-science-mls/

Womack Educational Leadership Department

College of Education

Middle Tennessee State University

1301 E. Main Street

P.O. Box 91

Murfreesboro, TN  37132

615-898-2583-office

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“Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."~Brian O'Driscoll

“Ratio ante passio.”~P.E. Trudeau, trans.

“We need to know our past to understand our present and anticipate wisely our future.”~F.P. Lambert

 

 

 

 

 

We handle all returned items with gloves and simply place them on a quarantine book cart for three days. Any virus that was there is dead by that time so there is no problem after that. We do the same with all of our mail and periodicals that come in. Of course we also wash our hands and use hand sanitizer regularly as well. It is pointless to attempt to sanitize books when they can just sit there and be virus free in three days. Some estimates are for even less time, but the longest the virus survives on any surface is three days.

 

 

 

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