Hinsdale library delivering books by using pedal power
Hinsdale Public Library is offering home delivery of library books from a cart powered by librarian Ridgeway Burns’ legs.
Burns, the youth and young adult services manager, came up with the idea as a novelty.
The library owns a wheeled cart it has brought to the farmers market and pulled in the Fourth of July parades to hand out books in prior years.
Burns saw a new use for it during the pandemic when the library’s interior is closed to the public and almost everyone is revising how they do things.
“Families are our target group,” Burns said, but the service is available to any residents in the village. “It’s about the experience. It makes it more fun for kids and is something different for families.”
The Gilman family on Glendale Avenue read about the service on a friend’s Facebook page and signed up.
“I love the idea, they are thinking out of the box,” Elaine Gilman said.
“Going to the library was a big part of our summer,” she said. “We did the summer reading program and went once a week. We usually combined it with going to the farmers market,” which is next to the Hinsdale Library on Mondays.
The bicycle-powered home delivery is almost like the old-fashioned house calls doctors used to make, Gilman said.
People can request specific books and materials or leave the choice up to the librarians.
Gilman filled out a Google form online and named books her three children liked and their ages. One son, for examples, likes the “Spy School” series and her daughter likes unicorns and animals.
“The librarians put together what they think the kids would like,” Gilman said. “The kids get a treat, because it’s like getting a mystery bag of books.”
Gilman appreciated Burns’ physical effort too. “Our street is very hilly,” she said.
Burns is an experienced bicyclist, having once biked from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon, although that was about 10 years ago, he said.
He pictured Hinsdale’s mostly flat terrain when he volunteered to ride and pull the cart. But he had not spent much time in southwest Hinsdale or the part north of Ogden Avenue, which is where Glendale Avenue is.
The first time he delivered books via the bicycle and cart, one family lived near Melin Park, which is by 55th Street and Route 83, and another delivery was at the apartments on Spinning Wheel Road north of Ogden, by Interstate 294.
“That’s about as far apart as you could get,” Burns said. Still he made all his deliveries and was back at the library within an hour.
“I was huffing and puffing and had the bike in the lowest gear,” he said.
Wearing a mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19 can make a hot day feel even warmer. Fortunately, Hinsdale has a lot of trees which makes for shady streets, Burns said.
“Crossing busy streets is a little challenging.” Burns gets off the bicycle and walks it and the cart across busy arterial streets, which stops his momentum.
He has made deliveries once a week for three weeks as of June 18, to three or four homes each time. If the demand grows, he may deliver to different areas on different days.
If only a few books are requested, he can put them in saddle bags on either side of the bicycle and does not use the cart.
Another member of the library staff also has volunteered to pedal the bike, Burns said.
The library still has home delivery via cars to housebound residents, which it has offered for years, and started curbside pickup outside the library during the coronavirus shutdown.
For more information about library services, go to the library website.