The CDC says that coronavirus does not spread easily by touching contaminated objects.

[intheflow]

69. I'm waiting for the study about surface contact in libraries.

I'm a librarian and obviously, the whole point of public libraries is unfettered access to info. Which means, "Please, come in, stay for hours, touch allll the things!" This is a beautiful thing when we're not in the middle of a pandemic. But now? Potentially deadly for staff and patrons.

The Institute of Museum & Library Services (government agency that funds libraries), OCLC (private library research organization), and Battelle (non-profit research agency) are conducting their own study to determine safe handling of physical materials. I feel confident that, even though IMLS is a government agency, they're not in cahoots with the guy who wants to eliminate their funding. OCLC would be dirt to all libraries if they went along with releasing bogus info. (I don't know anything about Battelle.) So I'm waiting for that study to be released.

https://www.imls.gov/news/covid-19-research-partnership-inform-safe-handling-collections-reopening-practices-libraries