Starting tomorrow (Tuesday), public access to the Smithers Public Library will be suspended.
Instead, the library is bringing back its take out service to anyone who wants to access the material.
Director Wendy Wright told My Bulkley Lakes Now concerns continue to mount when it comes to the amount of COVID-19 cases in the Smithers area.
“We can tell that people are a little bit anxious when we are in a small space and there are people not wearing masks so it’s just that it just has a lot of uncertainty for a lot of people.”
“The Library is very much aware of the rising number of cases in the Smithers area and we really want to make sure that everyone is kept safe, it’s a small library and people, of course, are trying to social distance but it can be tricky.”
She mentioned the take-out service proved to be pretty popular earlier on in the pandemic.
“We did this in the spring and the summer and it was very popular. During our regular hours, we will be putting together packages of old requests that people placed through our website and the online catalog, by phone, by email, we will package them up, check them out to you and pick them up at the front door without coming into the building.”
As for how long the operating model, will be in place, Wright stated that will be determined early in the new year.
“The board meeting in January is going to look at the local cases, look at the scenario, look at how take-out is going and make a decision as to whether to continue it for a bit longer or go back to regular service.”
However, does not believe the in-person experience will fade away once the pandemic wraps up.
“Most people really prefer to come in and browse because it is nice to stumble upon things that you weren’t looking for that look interesting so I think in-person browsing will be popular.”