Comments from Sharon Streams, Project Director of Pandemic-Related REALM Project

Sharon Streams, the project director of REALM (REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums) has discussed the project's COVID-19 research on the Hanging Together blog:

"The REALM project was designed to produce and distribute science-based information about how materials can be handled to mitigate exposure to coronavirus in staff and visitors of archives, libraries, and museums. A goal of the project is to better understand the virus in ways that will help inform local decision-making around operational practices and policies. The main questions that have shaped the project’s research activities are the following:

• How is SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, transmitted? 
• Are contaminated surfaces and materials contributing to COVID-19 infections?
• What are effective prevention and decontamination tactics to mitigate transmission?"

(...) 

"What is not in scope for the project is to develop one-size-fits-all recommendations or guidelines. Institutions vary significantly in their resources, settings, services, and priorities; and there is also a wide range of advisories and orders in place at local, state, and national levels. Therefore, each institution needs to develop policies and procedures in response to its local community needs and conditions and take into account pragmatic considerations of risk and available resources."

"Staff and leadership of organizations are under a great deal of stress while trying to find and interpret credible information and make decisions in the middle of crisis. Naturally, individuals also want to know how best to protect their own health and the health of others. All of us working in the field are trying to do the 'right' thing to reduce any risk to the staff and users who depend on services, facilities, and collections. In an atmosphere of urgency, uncertainty, and ambiguity, figuring out what is the best course of action can be very complicated. We have had to learn that during a public health crisis it is normal to have to make decisions based on incomplete or conflicting information."

REALM is a collaboration between OCLC, an international library services cooperative, the US government agency Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Battelle, an R&D organization.

Further details and results from lab tests on how long the virus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 remains detectable on various library surfaces and materials are available on the OCLC REALM Project website.