Curbside Holds Pickup Update

As I write this, I am back working in my office. It's strangely comforting to be here where it's quiet and only a few staff members are in the building working. We all miss the pre-pandemic level of services we provided and the continuous contact we had with our community. We yearn for days when we can return to that type of work. Although the building has been closed, there has been continuous behind the scenes work. All of our programming moved online, the Summer Reading Program was re-planned for an online venue and staff purchased many new ebooks and eaudiobooks (and they were read ... a lot!). Switchboard and Information Desk staff have been answering reference questions and phone calls from home, a daily storytime is posted at 10:30 each morning and staff have been sharing Library information on the webpage and via social media.

And ... We have been busy working on a safe way to offer access to our physical collections - safe for our staff and for community members. Much of this work will be highlighted at the Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday May 28. The Board Packet with reports may be viewed online.

Please watch our website for information about a new Curbside Holds Pick-up service that will begin on Thursday June 4. This service will be offered for existing Holds that are currently awaiting pickup. Next week, we'll begin contacting everyone with an existing Hold to determine 1) Do you still want your Hold? If so, do you want us to mail it to you or do you want to sign-up for Curbside Pickup? Please note - the staff doing this work are not the staff answering the phone and online reference questions. Please wait for us to contact you.

Curbside pickup will be offered by appointment Mondays through Fridays from 3 to 6 PM and Saturdays from 10 AM to 1 PM beginning June 4. The reservation system for signing up for a curbside appointment will be available the week of June 1. Please don't make a reservation until you have confirmation from the Library that your materials are ready for pickup. There will be 5 reserved pick-up times each 30 minutes. We anticipate times will fill up quickly, so you might consider requesting items by mail until we get the system up and running well. We anticipate expanding the times available for Curbside Holds pick-up but want to have a slow roll-out to assure we are establishing safe routines for staff and for our community.

We are planning for staff returning to working in our building and offering Curbside Holds Pick-up in the safest way possible. Staff will be wearing face-shields and masks. They will be practicing good pandemic hygiene with social distancing and frequent hand washing. Small teams of staff members will support the Curbside Holds Pick-up. Staff members are assigned to small teams to assure they have the physical space within our building to social distance and to minimize the number of staff members who are in contact with one-another. We are all learning a new way to work and to access Library materials. Please be patient with us.

In the future, once we master all the details related to Curbside Holds pickup, we'll add the option of placing Holds on materials that are checked in. We are not sure how soon we will be able to offer this option as there are many details to work out including good pandemic safety practices.

We've also had a lot of questions about returning Library materials. We would prefer you keep your materials but, if they must be returned, they can go to the book return at the Downtown Library that is located near the Staff Entrance on Linn Street. Materials returned to the Library are quarantined 72 hours before they are checked in. Also, because of the pandemic, we are unable to accept gift books at this time. 

Thank you for your patience, kind words and support during this time. Our staff cares about our community and it has been very difficult to not offer access to our physical collections. We look forward to beginning Curbside Holds pickup on Thursday June 4 and seeing your [masked] faces again!