Library serves as ‘second line’
National Library Week ends today, and while the Garland County Library is temporarily closed to the public and didn’t celebrate due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still busy at work accommodating the community and serving as the community’s “second line,” Adam Webb, the library’s director, said.
“Hopefully we’re doing our part with trying to keep people sane and occupied with e-books to read and audiobooks to listen to and programs that we’re providing online, and I’m really hoping that we can kind of be the softer response to this epidemic,” Webb said. “We’ve got to take care of people’s immediate needs, but the library’s kind of the second line, where there’s other folks taking care of the front line.”
He said the library is trying to support the community in
any way it can.
“One thing that we’re going to start doing (is) … using our
3D printers to help with (Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts) efforts in printing PPE,” Webb said.
The library is also trying to “keep people’s spirits up” with the staff dressing up for themed Friday Curbside pickups from
9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m., Webb said. So far, themes have included the Easter Bunny, Formal Friday and Half-Halloween Friday.
“We are doing curbside pickup of physical materials, so folks can place things on hold at home or they can call us,” he said. “… Once they get a notice saying their materials are ready to pick up they pull into the library’s covered drive, call the number on the sign and we’ll come run it out to them. … They can check our catalog, which is all online, or they can check our app, which is available in the app store or from Google Play.”
Other physical materials being checked out from the library include fishing poles, baking pans and Wi-Fi hot spots.
“I know everybody’s got plenty of time on their hands to bake these days, it seems,” Webb said. “The state said it’s OK to go fishing, so folks are trying to take advantage of the nice weather and do that. We do have a limited number of Wi-Fi hot spots folks can check out if they don’t have home internet (but) I think right now there’s a waiting list for those.”
He said a lot of people are continuing to utilize the library throughout the pandemic, but mostly its digital material.
“We did increase the checkout limit for Hoopla Digital; that’s one of our digital services. It’s an e-book, audiobook, TV and movie database,” Webb said. “Patrons used to have 10 checkouts on that and we doubled it to 20 because we know folks need stuff to read and since we’ve been closed it’s been harder to do.”
He said with some people, it’s their first time utilizing the library’s digital services.
“We knew that would be challenging, so we also launched a chat service where patrons can chat live with a library staff member on their computer or on their phone if they go to our website,” Webb said. “There’s a little chat window that pops up, and when they start typing in there they’re actually speaking with one of the library employees; it’s not an outsourced thing, it’s one of our staff members either working from home or when they’re in the office.”
The library is also utilizing its digital platform to continue its programming.
“We’re doing story time at home, our children’s department staff are coordinating with local teachers and local schools for doing library programming live with students who are still at home,” Webb said. “We’ve been doing tutorials online for different things you can do, like how to sew a face mask. We just did one on butterfly feeders and you’ll be able to actually pick up the supplies to make butterfly feeders this week.”
Additionally, the library is accommodating the public even after hours.
“We’ve turned our Wi-Fi on at the library 24 hours a day,” Webb said. “It used to shut off when the library shut off, so now it’s on 24 hours a day. So if someone needs access and they don’t have it at home, they can still pull up to our facility, park in the parking lot and use the Wi-Fi from there.”
For more information on the library’s services, visit http:// gclibrary.com or call 623-4161.