Covid-19 is here in Los Angeles County. The Covid-19, corona virus is all over the planet. The least we can do is try and help flatten the curve by staying home and using the LAPL’s e-media!  Or the LA County’s digital library! Or the Glendale’s Library Arts & Culture online services! Or any local public library’s e-media or digital library resources. There are so many  services available to you through your smart phone. You don’t even have to leave your home. (A good idea during the pandemic).

A lot of people are getting sick, and will get sick. I’ve been reading about China, Italy, Iran. . .and so many other places. . . people’s stories have struck me hard.

As I sit here at home, after calling out sick to work yesterday, and being unable to pick up my daughter from her dad’s house this evening because I am in bed at home with a fever, I am isolated. Isolated but not from the library services I can access from my phone. And it shouldn’t have to take getting ill to remember that even people who aren’t showing any symptoms can pass the virus to others who might get really sick.

So let’s flatten the pandemic curve.  Stay home. Download library apps:

Kanopy (watch a movie with your library card). Mango (learn a language with your library card). Libby and Overdrive. (read a e-book with your library card). Hoopla (listen to audiobooks with your library card).  The free services are endless, seriously. It doesn’t seem like it’s real, but it’s real. Your library card is like a gift card for fun from your couch. Look up your local library online services and get ready to see how many things you’ve been missing out on . . .  but don’t worry. Start to enjoy them today!

Tell your friends. Tell them to stay home too. Read Hilda graphic novels and then watch Hilda the series, on Netflix, while in bed snuggling with your loved ones. (Sorry, Netflix is not accessible with your library card, YET. . . )

Let’s be a good citizen in our community and protect each other by stopping the spread of Covid-19, the corona virus. Stay home and read books, listen to books, watch documentaries, learn languages and hey, even get a High School Diploma.

Get a book off your shelf (you know you have books you haven’t read yet just laying there). Read them out loud to yourself, your cat, your dog, your kid, your partner, your roommate or your plant.  Listen to the audiobook version through one of those services, and look at the paper version you own at the same time.

I was planning on giving a talk at the California Speech and Hearing Association conference on March 22, 2020, but that has been cancelled due to Covid-19. I am sad I won’t be able to share about libraries and speech language pathology, but I am glad we are cancelling big events to keep vulnerable people safe.  If a few people can be kept alive, we are all doing the right thing by staying home.  We will get through this when we all help each other.

Thank you public libraries for your online services! Especially since most libraries are now closed, which, is a good thing in the long run. We will all be happy when the library is open again, but in the meantime, let’s get online.

Oh, and Happy Pi Day.