Capitol Hill Books, a popular and much-loved used neighborhood used bookstore, is altering its operations in response to the local outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

“Ever dream of having Capitol Hill Books all to yourself? Now you can,” the store tweeted on Monday morning.

Staff will be accepting one-hour bookings via email for no more than four customers at a time, allowing them to browse the shelves for an hour in an uncrowded store, free of cost, and “hopefully buy a lot of books,” says Kyle Burk, one of the owners of Capitol Hill Books.

“Yesterday we were going over all of our options and deciding whether we should shut down, and we were looking for ways to keep our employees with a paycheck and health insurance while this is happening,” Burk says. “It’s a perfect balance to strike, trying to come up with ideas that could still generate a little revenue but still keep everybody safe at the same time.”

As of the last official count on Monday, there were 17 total cases of COVID-19 in the District, and dozens more in Virginia and Maryland. In an effort to limit community spread, officials have been clamping down ever-tighter on events and businesses where infected people are likely to pass the virus on to others. Office workers across the region are working from home, Metro has altered its operating schedule, and Mayor Muriel Bowser has implemented stricter operating guidelines for bars and restaurants.

Burk says that business on Saturday was only slightly down from the usual, but by Sunday it had been cut in half. Still, they decided it wasn’t safe for customers or for their staff to be in a regularly-operating bookstore. Capitol Hill Books is known for its narrow passageways and its large stacks of paperbacks, sometimes necessitating that customers brush closely by one another to pass from one part of the store to another.

The store still has two employees working on site during operating hours, Burk says, and they will meet customers at the door with hand sanitizer and gloves before allowing them into the store, he says.

Since the store sent out its tweet about the new reservation policy, it’s already received several inquiries, per Burk. In addition to reservations, the store is selling rare books on its website and offering free shipping to anywhere in the U.S.

While the owners know it’s possible they’ll eventually have to close down completely as the city continues dealing with the outbreak, they’re doing everything possible now to ensure they’ll be able to keep themselves in business long term.

“I mean, look. It’s going to be rough,” Burk says. “You can imaging that your average used bookstore doesn’t have a huge stockpile of cash to continue operations without any revenue coming in for months on end.”

So far, he says, they haven’t had to cut employee hours (the store has five full time employees, including at its rare book warehouse in Hyattesville).

Burk bought the store from its old owner in 2018 with three of his best friends, Aaron Beckwith, Shantanu Malkar, and Matt Wixon. They all worked at the store on and off at various times, and it formed a core part of their social lives for more than 15 years. The four friends began planning to buy the store from owner Jim Toole, and managed to save up money with the help of money from Wixon’s moving company, Bookstore Movers. Wixon passed away from colon cancer in 2019, leaving behind a community of people at the bookstore that he’d loved.

“To say we’re dedicated to keeping this place open is a huge understatement. This is something we’ve been committed to. All the owners have been involved in this place for 15 years, even before we owned the store. We purchased the store particularly because we wanted to keep it alive—we think it’s an important part of the neighborhood and the community and it needs to be around as long as possible,” Burk says. “It’s a huge reason why we wake up in the morning. It’s a home for us and we’ll do our best to keep it here.”

This story has been updated to reflect that Capitol Hill Books has five full time employees, not six.