Using public libraries at this time

[ian]

If you are not licking the pages (I imagine it takes something a bit stronger than available in local libraries to inspire that), then it's a simple case of washing your hands after reading and keeping your fingers out of your mouth and eyes. Possibly wipe down the cover with sanitizer (not ordinary Tizer). The likelihood of picking up the virus from a couple of random pages in the book would be very low, especially after a couple of days (as I've said, nearly all the studies of virus persistence have looked at the nucleic acids, rather than infectious virions).

But seriously, even when this is over, don't lick the library books.

[rafletcher]

The idea of turning old phone boxes into free libraries has taken off around where I live, including my village. I’m just wondering how these could be made safe just now. I wonder if picking up books using gloves and then “ isolating” them for a number of days before you read them would work?

Pop them in a plastic bag for 72 hours if you're concerned.

[arabella]

Lots of 'help yourself' boxes around here.
So I have a book that's been in purdah for the past 72 hours, I reckon I can read it now.
istr that even if there were still viruses (?) on whatever item fter mumble hours, there was  sort of half-load  idea, a bit like radiation so that after n hours, x% were gone, after 2n hours then a further x% of (100-x) were gone etc., until after a certain number of hours they were all gone.
but the fewer that are left the harder it would be for one to find your tear duct or whatever