SOUTH HADLEY — Readers who placed library books on hold before the shutdown can now check out their books after the South Hadley Public Library reopened for pickup on holds only on Monday.
The library had “hundreds of items behind the desk when we closed in March,” said South Hadley Public Library Director Joseph Rodio, “so patrons have been waiting since mid-March for those. So we thought the first natural step was to get those books into the hands of those who have been waiting.”
The library is currently contacting patrons with these existing holds and will begin to provide curbside pickup on new requests once that backlog has been cleared or reduced to a manageable number.
“It’s felt great all around,” Rodio said of the resumed services. “The staff is really happy to be serving the public directly again, and with the patrons that have been coming in, there have been a lot of smiles behind the masks.”
Patrons can pick up their books in the vestibule between the two sets of doors that lead into the library, which Rodio says protects the library books from the elements while ensuring that people do not need to enter the main library.
The library has experienced a steady flow of patrons coming to pick up holds for most of its first week offering the service, Rodio said. Patrons can schedule pickup appointments between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The library’s employees hope to have the holds cleared by the end of next week, Rodio said, and will make an announcement on how people can request new materials.
All books returned to the library will be placed in a “quarantine” area for 72 hours before being loaned out again, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines say is enough time for any virus remnants on the materials to die off.
The library also is taking measures such as extending the time for returning materials, which Rodio said was implemented so that people do not have a need to return to the library frequently.
“There are still guidelines recommending people stay at home to stay safe, and we certainly want to balance giving them access to library materials while also supporting the measures to keep people safer at home,” Rodio said.
While the South Hadley Public Library has been closed since Gov. Charlie Baker’s shutdown order in March, library activity has not been silent — the library saw an increased demand for ebooks and continued to offer its online databases, streaming services and other digital resources, and staff attended webinars on safely reopening.
The South Hadley Public Library is among a wave of libraries beginning to offer curbside pickup services as lockdown measures ease. The Goodwin Memorial Library in Hadley and Emily Williston Memorial Library in Easthampton also began offering curbside pickup this week, and a group of library staffs in Southampton, Northampton, Easthampton, Florence, Westhampton and Williamsburg have joined together to form and enact curbside pickup guidelines.
The library has limited staff going into the building, Rodio said, but for most of the shutdown period, staff work was primarily narrowed to social media, website development, training and other remote work.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.