At the Watertown Library Association, the health & safety of our patrons and staff remains our top priority.

The Library Administration monitors the State of Connecticut, our own Town Government, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the Torrington Health District to stay current.

All times and services are subject to change.

We ask all patrons experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 to stay home and seek medical help. Symptoms may include fever, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, and any new loss of taste or smell.

Patrons are asked to maintain a physical distance of at least six feet from other people with whom they do not share a home.

Both the Watertown Library and the Oakville Branch Library are professionally cleaned daily.

Staff clean frequently used surfaces throughout the day.

Hand Sanitizer is available at the entrance and exit as well as throughout the publicly accessible areas.

Plexiglass is in place at the staff desks and we maintain a staff only area around these desks. Public printers at the Watertown Library are now within this area so all printing by the public is picked up and paid for at the Circulation desk.

Curbside Service remains available even though all our collections are open for public browsing. An exception is our YA collection at the Watertown Library because the shelves are directly behind the staff desk in the children's area. Most patrons who are interested in that collection can see the shelves from a few feet away, otherwise, staff will happily bring forward any books of interest. A shelf browse feature is available in our catalog.

Materials quarantine is no longer happening; however we do clean all items before they are put back into the collection or put on the hold shelf.

Time at a public computer is one hour. Individual workspaces are available for quiet study, to use a personal device to connect to the internet, etc. The time allowed at an individual workstation is three hours. People may drop in or reserve a computer or workspace. We do register patrons, the time, and the location being used for public computers and individual workspaces. Each location is cleaned after use. Not all computers and spaces are open to maintain proper distance.

Some of our comfortable chairs are back out with appropriate spacing on the adult side at the Watertown Library.

Some tables with a few chairs are back out throughout the libray.

The toys are not back out in the children's area.

The Oakville Branch Library has spaced out the tables and chairs in their smaller space.