The New Westminster Public Library is serving up books, CDs and DVDs by the bag full in its new takeout service.
In mid-May, the library launched a takeout service that allows people to pre-order books, CDs and DVDs online or by phone and pick up the items up at designated times from the main branch in Uptown New West.
“That service is going incredibly well and is proving to be very, very popular. The appointments get filled very quickly,” said chief librarian Julie Spurrell. “The library is full of rows and rows and rows of brown paper bags full of books and DVDs for people to take home.”
According to Spurrell, the library started taking orders on Wednesday, May 13, with pickups beginning May 20. By the end of May, the library had filled 711 customer orders consisting of 3,375 items.
The New Westminster Public Library is planning to start a similar service at its Queensborough branch this summer.
In an effort to prevent the potential transmission of COVID-19, the takeout program has been designed to be as touch-free as possible.
Safety is also paramount when community members return items to the library. As those books, CDs and DVDs are returned, they spend some time in quarantine in the library’s auditorium.
“When materials come in now, we have to not touch them for at least 48 hours,” Spurrell said. “Most libraries are actually using 72 hours out of an abundance of caution. So, all of those materials will be going into the auditorium for a little holiday before they can be checked in and brought back upstairs and put on the shelves.”
When the library closed in March because of COVID-19, staff began working to improve access to online/digital resources, such as eBooks, eAudiobooks, online magazines, newspapers and learning products.
“Our digital collection use has also been very robust since our facilities closed in March. In this period residents have downloaded 30% more eBooks than in the same period of 2019, 22% more eAudio Books, have taken 14% more online courses through Lynda.com, and have made 22% more visits to our website,” Spurrell said. “Given how busy so many people have been working from home and home-schooling their children, we’re thrilled they also took time to use library collections and resources.”
For now, the New Westminster Public Library is continuing on with its online and takeout services. In August it plans to introduce some limited access to computers and tech help, the children’s area and study/work spaces at the Uptown branch.
A mix of general access and by-appointment use of most of the library may begin in September, but in-house programming at the library isn’t likely to resume until 2021.
“We know how popular our meeting rooms are. We certainly hope to return them to public use as soon as possible,” Spurrell recently told council. “Right now we have no anticipated date for that.”
