The library has now been operating with curbside pickup for a few weeks and we are happy to report that this system has been working pretty smoothly. Our thanks go out to so many of you who have taken advantage of this new service, both for giving it a try and for working carefully with our safety protocols as we work to ensure the health of the public and our staff. If you haven’t given it a try yet, I encourage you to do so and you can read more information online at sonomalibrary.org/curbside.
I am also happy to report that we are now accepting returns for items in a limited and careful manner. Although we don’t charge late fees and we are extending all due dates throughout this period of crisis, we also know that many of you would rather return the items than keep them in your household any longer. If you have items to return, please bring them to the library on Friday or Saturday only. In Healdsburg, the book drop will open at 10 a.m. and remain open until 5 p.m. or when it becomes too full. We’ve already had to close the book drop early because of overflow — we are so sorry for that inconvenience if you brought items back already and weren’t able to leave them with us. We are following national recommendations for quarantining library materials before handling them, which explains our limited schedule.
Although we’re able to take returns, we are unable to accept donations just yet. This is another area we hear about a lot from our community. We deeply appreciate you thinking of us for your generous donations, but we ask you to hold on to them or find another agency that can accept them for the time being. Please don’t put them in the book drop or leave them outside as we cannot take care of them right now.
Some of you have also asked when the library building will be open to the public again. In the “Stay Well Sonoma County” health order of June 17, the Sonoma County Health Officer stated that curbside and virtual activities are “strongly recommended” in lieu of in-person service where practicable. Along with the stricter guidelines associated with the state’s watch list, this information currently leads us to focus on continuing and expanding our curbside, virtual, and remote services. We will continue to try our best to help meet the information needs of our community at a safe distance in this time of crisis.
It’s looking like we will be restricted from providing our programs to you inside the library for some time. The Sonoma County Library has staff (including some of our own Healdsburg staff) making YouTube videos and offering a few interactive programs as well. We have story times, tutorials, crafts, book clubs, and even chances to learn guitar and ukulele together. We are working to expand our offerings in the coming months, and I hope you enjoy what we create. I’d like to invite you to explore what’s available at events.sonomalibrary.org. As always, thank you so much for supporting your local public library and we look forward to seeing you soon.
