Q&A with Shelter Island Public Library Director Terry Lucas

Q. How was the shutdown for you personally? For everyone who couldn’t go to their workplace, there was an adjustment, but your work also normally involves staff and dealing with the public.

A.  I didn’t realize that working from home would be so all-consuming. I needed to stay in touch with the staff and try to climb our steep learning curve of online programming with them. I also wanted to make sure we reached out to our patrons and let them know what was going on and that we missed them. The whole library staff was amazing. In a weird way, not being able to be in the same building made us a stronger team. I have to admit that I did enjoy working in slippers and sweatpants.

Q. You and the staff have kept up a constant program of activities for children and adults to enjoy online. What was the process for planning and coordinating these?

A. Every Wednesday we had a staff Zoom meeting to update everyone and talk about programs. We also had a Slack channel where anyone could post ideas for social media postings and programs. We launched a new website right before we closed up on March 13, so there was a lot of work done to make that site really user-friendly for general information and program sign-up.

Q. What are you most looking forward to after reopening?

A. The day before the staff came into the library for the first time a few weeks ago felt like the day before the first day of school. I was so happy to have them back. I’ve missed the place where people gather to browse and chat. Even with the limited time appointments, I know we’ll all be thrilled to be able to talk to our library users, masked face to masked face!

Q. Has one or more of the online programs been especially successful? Anything you’d like to continue in the future after re-opening?

A. The most successful program in March, April and May was Trivia with Bob DeStefano. I think it gave Islanders a chance to reconnect, laugh and have some fun. Now we’re running almost all of our regular programs online and our books clubs, ESL, the Art/Rich Poetry group, the Shakespeare group and others are now accustomed to online meetings. We’re even holding our Book and Author fundraiser on Zoom this year, on Aug. 2, with Adriana Trigiani and Elin Hilderbrand in conversation. That should be a great event.