KOJO NNAMDIBefore we go today, D.C. public libraries closed their doors on March 16th, as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the Washington region. But public libraries have seen a huge demand for all of their digital services as people look for ways to fill their time during stay-at-home orders and social distancing. And D.C. Public Library has taken steps to make sure people can bring the library home. Joining us now is Richard Reyes-Gavilan, the executive director of D.C. Public Library. Richard, thank you for joining us.

RICHARD REYES-GAVILANHey, Kojo. How are you? Thanks for having me.

NNAMDITrying to stay safe, Richard. Most people know that the public library offers digital versions of many books that can be checked out remotely with various apps. But what other digital services does the library offer?

REYES-GAVILANSure. Thanks, Kojo. And before I start, let me just thank you and WAMU. You guys are my personal COVID soundtrack. It's on every day for about 12 hours a day, so it makes working from home much more tolerable. With that, I should say, so in addition to e-books, of course, many people, not everyone, knows that libraries offer e-books. And just since March 16th, we've had about 200,000 e-books borrowed from the D.C. Public Library.

REYES-GAVILANBut some things that we offer, like streaming movies, is another really popular offering. We have this service called Kanopy, which is sort of like Netflix, but maybe a little bit more thoughtful.

NNAMDI(overlapping) We rely heavily on that.

REYES-GAVILANThat's great. I'm glad to hear it. I mean, just really obscure stuff, in some cases. Also, of course, Kanopy for Kids, so kids movies, shorts. Lots of really, good, good stuff on Kanopy. Another one of my favorites is something called Arby digital, which is a platform where you can look at hundreds of popular magazines. So, things like, you know, Good Housekeeping or Consumer Reports. And you can flip through those magazines, just like you would a physical magazine.

REYES-GAVILANAnd then I think one thing that I really want to impress upon people, we've got services that provide people instructional videos. So, a program like Lynda.com, that's L-Y-N-D-A. Normally people have to pay quite a bit for access to this, but with your D.C. Public Library card you can access Lynda for free. And, again, you can get videos for all sorts of things that you want to learn about, whether it's Microsoft Office or social media or web design or architectural design.

REYES-GAVILANIn fact, my wife is downstairs right now, taking a tutorial on Google Sketchup to hone up her architectural skills. So, it's just a tremendous amount of things that you can get from the library. And, all of this, of course, is available at DClibary.org/library@home.

NNAMDII've got to mention that it was Tom Sherwood who first turned me onto Kanopy a few years ago. If I didn't say that, then he'd be tweeting bad things about me. But, Richard, what kind of increase have you seen in the circulation of your digital products since library buildings closed in March?

REYES-GAVILANOh, boy, Kojo, it's been astounding. So, just since March 16th, we've got 7,000 new users of our e-book platform, called Overdrive. About 5,000 new accounts have been created. So, 5,000 people who didn't have library cards have applied for library cards since March 16th. We've had incredible increases, like a 300 percent increase in the use of our e-books. We've had almost a 300 percent increase in the use of Kanopy. So, people are really relying on the library for all this incredible online content.

NNAMDIAs I...

REYES-GAVILANAnd I should also -- yep, go ahead, sorry.

NNAMDIAs I understand it, you've also made it very easy for people to get a digital library card if they have not been a library patron before, and to use an old card, if it's expired. Tell us about that.

REYES-GAVILANYes. So, we want to remove all barriers to participation with the library. That's something that is meaningful to us, at all times. And so, if you have a -- let's say your account was blocked because of overdue fees or things of that nature, all of that has been waived, for now. So, you can go to the library's website, dclibrary.org, and you can -- if you haven't used a library card or you think you can't use it, you can go in and apply for a new one. And that gives you immediate access. So, you don't have to wait for a confirmation or anything like that. Go to the library's website, apply for a library card, and you can start enjoying all the library services immediately.

NNAMDIYou've been offering virtual story time for kids and other online classes and services. Do you think any of these changes that you've implemented during the pandemic shutdown will become permanent? And what kinds of changes should people expect when the library reopens?

REYES-GAVILANThat's a great question, Kojo. I mean, one thing that I will say that the libraries have traditionally been bad at is social distancing. You know, we have been attracting almost four million residents per year to all of our branches, which is just a staggering number. And so we're going to have to temper that when we reopen, and we're going to have to have better control of our spaces.

REYES-GAVILANSo, one of the things that we absolutely intend on doing is maintaining some of our digital offerings. So, you mentioned our Facebook story time, which we do five days a week, Monday through Friday. And we get maybe 6 or 700 views on Facebook for that program, and that's great. And we do book talks on Twitter. We do all sorts of things online that we will continue to do in order to be able to continue to reach patrons online. And maybe -- and it sounds weird but, you know, it will help us manage physical access to our spaces when we reopen.

NNAMDIBefore you go, I have to ask, what has been the most popular e-book at the D.C. Public Library in the past few weeks? Is it my memoir? Oh, no, it hasn't been written yet, but go ahead, please. (laugh)

REYES-GAVILAN(laugh) Well, there is actually a tie to you, Kojo, because I think our most popular e-book, since we closed, was Elizabeth Acevedo, who you remember was on your show earlier this week.

NNAMDICorrect.

REYES-GAVILANSo, her novel "With the Fire on High" was a -- we used her novel for our D.C. Reads Program. We did this very quickly upon closing in March, a one-book, one city. And we had about 600 people borrow that book.

NNAMDIVery cool.

REYES-GAVILANAnd Elizabeth was gracious enough to participate in the discussion with us, yeah.

NNAMDIRichard Reyes-Gavilan is the executive director of D.C. Public Library. Richard, always a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us. Today's show was produced by Julie Depenbrock. Coming up tomorrow, meatpacking plants have become hotspots for coronavirus. What does that mean for local workers? Plus, trillions of dollars have been spent to boost the economy and those who have lost their jobs, but none of that money is earmarked for the 11 million undocumented people in the country. We'll check on how that's affecting immigrant communities in our region. That all starts tomorrow, at noon. Until then, thank you for listening, and stay safe. I'm Kojo Nnamdi.