Library to offer curbside service, online summer reading

The Homewood Public Library is the busiest library in Alabama for its size group, which means reopening during a pandemic can be challenging.

Starting June 1, people with a Jefferson County Library Cooperative card will be able to reserve books online for curbside pickup at the Homewood library. The service will be offered 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

“This is very new,” said Deborah Fout, the director of the Homewood Public Library. “We’ve never done curbside at all, and really nobody’s done much curbside before.”

In an effort to avoid long lines, those using the pickup service will need to go online and select a time slot at homewoodpubliclibrary.org or using the Homewood Public Library phone application. Parking spaces will be marked for curbside pickup.

“We’ve ordered bags, and we’ll bag up their books, take them out, have them pop open their trunk or unlock the doors, and we’ll stick them in either the back seat or the trunk for them,” Fout said. “Absolutely no contact for the staff or for the patrons.”

Pickup for curbside will be located at the back of the library. Not only will this help keep traffic off of Oxmoor Road, but it will also help keep pickup traffic away from the drop-off bins.

“We want all materials that comeback to the library to come through the book drops, where our staff will wear PPE, load them up into carts, and we’ll roll them into a room in the library,” Fout said.

The dropped-off books will stay in a room in the library “in quarantine” for at least three days to help ensure the staff’s safety, Fout said. The books will then be sanitized and ready to circulate to the next person.

Because the library has never done anything like this before, Fout expects there will be a learning curve, she said.

“I’m sure, the first week, we’re going to learn some things we need to change and modify,” she said. “But we’re going to make it work, and we’ve got some real good procedures in place. I think it’s going to work well, so we’ll see how it goes.”

The Homewood library’s summer reading program will also have to adapt to the “new normal” this year. Summer reading programs this year are all virtual and began May 18.

Readers sign up at homewood.beanstack.org, and then they can participate in challenges and win badges or prizes.

“I love technology, but my librarians are good at creating the programs and getting them up online,” Fout said. “And of course, our tech people are really good, and they’ve worked hard to get some services online."

The Homewood library is also nearing the completion of recent construction, which will move the computer lab upstairs into a room with windows, sunshine and bright light. The new construction will also have four glassed-in study rooms. The new construction is on track to be completed by mid-July, Fout said, but it has not yet been announced when the inside of the library will once again be open to the public.