Posted on 13 July 2020 by Gillian.
We are SO excited that our doors have reopened so that we can see your bright and smiling faces again - though many of your smiles are hidden behind masks - but nonetheless, we're so happy to see you!
"Reopening" doesn't mean that we're back to regular operations. "Reopening," at least for the first little while, is limited to browsing and borrowing from our collections of books, movies, video games, etc. A limited number of patrons are allowed in the doors at one time and we ask that you try to stay for only 20-minutes so that we can safely accommodate everyone who would like to browse in a day. Public internet access/drop-in computers aren't available until the end of July, neither are printing/photocopying/faxing services.
Another thing that is different under this first phase of "reopening" is our hours of operation. The hours which we are currently open to the public are limited to 2pm - 6pm, Monday - Friday. Extended hours will be launched during Phase Two on Tuesday, August 4.
No-Contact Pick-up Service to Continue Indefinitely
We launched our no-contact pick-up service just a few weeks after we had to close our doors to the public. This service has been wildly successful with 2,000 pick-ups completed by the time we reopened! Because this service has been such a great success, and because we want to continue to provide all of you with the safest possible way of borrowing our materials, we've decided to keep this service running for the foreseeable future.
To access this service, call us at 403-502-8525, Monday - Friday from 10am - 6pm.
Kinsmen Children's Library Remains Closed
Thanks to a generous $159,000 donation made by our local Kinsmen Club, we will once again be disrupting service in the Kinsmen Children's Library in order to complete some much-needed renovations. We very much encourage you to continue borrowing our children's books and other materials through our no-contact pick-up service.
And another bit of sad news: Our regular TD Summer Reading Club will not be able to proceed this year. But fortunately, the fine folks who organize this summer reading program have been working very hard for the last few months to create virtual delivery of the club. We're also working on a little online summer reading game of our own (which we're very excited about!!) - details to come soon.
Holds, Memberships, Fines, Fees, etc.
Bibliocommons is finally back online for you to place holds on our materials! If you have materials ready for pick-up, call us at 403-502-8525 to schedule your no-contact pick-up or come in during open hours.
Still have materials at home from before our closure? We've extended all due dates to Friday, July 31. If you can return your items before that date, please do so using the outdoor book drops. If not, don't worry because we've waived all late fines for now.
Did you sign-up online for a temporary membership? Great! We're extending those beyond the 90-Day Free Trial period with an expiry date of Monday, August 31. We've also used this date as the expiry for all memberships that were set to expire since mid-March.
If your card is expiring soon or has previously expired, we'd love to get you renewed for another year. You can fill out our online Renewal Form or give us a call at 403-502-8525. For those of you who signed up for the free trial online, you'll have to come to the Library to convert your trial into a full membership after your free trial period expires. We hope to convert you before summer is over!
The Future: What To Expect Next
Here's the schedule of when we'll be reintroducing other services and increasing hours.
- Monday, July 20: internet on; computers available to reserve ahead of time for 45-minute time slots
- Wednesday, July 22: study tables available by reservation for 90-minutes
- Tuesday, August 4: library hours increased to 10am - 6pm, Monday - Friday
- Monday, October 5 (tentative): hours increased again to M/W/F/Sat: 10am - 6pm; Tue/Thu: 10am - 8pm
To reserve a computer or a study table, call us at 403-502-8525.
