Valley City  (VCBC Library)  The Valley City Barnes County Public Library will be moving to Level 2 of their pandemic plan starting June 1st, starting to provide limited circulation of library materials utilizing a drive up/curbside service model.

The news release goes on to say:  “At the May 21st monthly board meeting, the executive committee, comprised of the board president, director, and assistant director, recommended and the board approved starting curbside service June 1st. We feel, based on current data, that the library can safely restart limited circulation of library materials via curbside pickup.

 

Library hours during curbside pick will be as follows:

Staff will be available for phone assistance 10-5 MWF and 10-7 TR. Curbside service will run from 12-5 MWF and 12-7 TR. Please do not come before noon, staff will need that time to clean and process returns. The library will be closed Saturday and Sunday.

 

We would prefer patrons reserve items themselves utilizing our online catalog. Go to our website vcbclibrary.org and click on the catalog. You will need your library card number, enter all 14 digits and your password is the phone number we have on record. For patrons new to online reserves, there is a link to a short demonstration video explaining the online reserve process on our webpage in the scrolling window and on the catalog page, click the yellow ?help next to the main search bar. If you have questions or problems, please don’t hesitate to call, you won’t be the first person we have walked through the process.

 

For our non-techy patrons, please give us a call, 845-3821, and a staff member will be happy to assist you from start to finish. You will need to give them your card number so we can verify your identity.

 

The curbside model has necessitated a few temporary changes to our circulation rules:

  1. Patrons are limited to three (3) items at a time, a limit of ten (10) per family
  2. Patrons will be limited to three (3) items on reserve at a time.
  3. Reserved items will be available for pick up the following day and will be held for three days. Items reserved Friday, Saturday, or Sunday will be available the following Monday, we hope. Patron’s will receive a text, email, or phone call when items are ready.
  4. DVDs will be reservable
  5. We will have normal check out periods for library materials; seven (7) days for DVDs no renewals, all other materials twenty-eight (28) days and one renewal. Items with reserves will not be renewable.

 

  1. There will be no late fines for any library materials including DVDs. Please return on time or early if you are finished, other patrons may be waiting for that item.
  2. All items returned will be held in a 48 hour quarantine and covers wiped down before being returned to circulation. This is the current recommendation from CDC and the American Library Association.
  3. The threshold for account suspension, on late fines only, has been changed from $5 to $25. If you returned materials late and accrued fines more than $5 you can now checkout library materials again. This does not apply to patrons who have long overdue items. See item 9 below.
  4. We will be enforcing our policy of any item(s) six months (180 days) past due will be considered lost and the patron will be responsible for the replacement cost even if the item is returned later. (full details in the library circulation policy amended September 2019, available on our website)

 

We recognize the reduced number of items per checkout and reserve may inconvenience some of our patrons. Curbside service is much more labor intensive, we anticipate each patron transaction will take approximately ten minutes from start to finish. We will reevaluate the process after a month and decide what, if any, changes can or should be made. We would rather under promise and over deliver.

Moving forward, when returning library materials please use the red drive up box between the library and the city/county health building. We will be locking and discontinuing use of the drop by the glass doors since items tend to get damaged if it gets too full. To use the red box, enter the city/county health parking lot by Leevers, follow if around turning left and heading south, the box will then be on the driver’s side, exit onto 4th St across from the city parking behind the Post Office. This follows the established one-way traffic pattern around the building.

We still have all our electronic materials available through our website, vcbclibrary.org. If you have any questions, please call or send us an email at support@vcbclibrary.org

We think we have anticipated and addressed all the possible difficulties with the curbside delivery model but unknows are simply that. We will do our best and just ask for your patience and understanding during this time of transition.

A public library is all about people, so from all the staff to all our patrons, we have missed you and are happy to be able to serve you again. Stay safe, stay well.”