Yesterday I twittered about the new hand sanitizers at the British Library, and when I saw it being RT’d I decided that I should clarify my 140 characters because the tweet makes things sound worse than they really are.
The library installed sanitizer gel dispensers during the swine flu crisis a few weeks ago, and in the current email reader bulletin they note that the gel can cause damage to collection items if you don’t wait 30 seconds for it to dry. They did put up signs by each dispenser explaining the need to wait before touching anything, and it would undoubtedly take more than thirty seconds just to get back to your desk from the bathroom anyway. Basically, I just found the email amusing as a tug-of-war between our society’s panic over disease and the continuous, low-level panic of managing library collections.
What really annoys me about the hand sanitizers is this:
A) You should be washing your hands! The gel isn’t, as far as I know, going to get rid of dirt, grease, or cupcake icing, and the BL regulations have always asked patrons to wash their hand thoroughly before handling collection materials. So then if you’ve washed your hands, why do you need the sanitizer? Might it not encourage people to forgo proper washing?
B) Washing your hands correctly is still the best way to prevent the spread of the flu. Hand sanitizers should be reserved for times when this is difficult or impossible, not for regular use. Installing permanent dispensers sends the message that washing your hands isn’t enough. Everybody panic more!
C) It panders to the lowest common denominators of ignorance and fear. Our culture is already full of scary and misleading messages about germs, some spread by rumors, others created by ad agencies to guilt and frighten people into buying more of their cleaning products. Basic precautions such as washing your hands are fine. We don’t need another product to be safer, certainly not installed in a bathroom full of sinks and soap.
