The Summit County Library has come up with two new ways to be more accessible to its patrons.
Not only has it recently installed outdoor holds pickup lockers at the Kimball Junction and Kamas Valley branches. It will also embark on a pilot program to open every Sunday in March and April, said Library Director Daniel Compton.
“One of the big things with our new strategic planning is to expand the user experience for our patrons,” he said. “We asked ourselves how we could get more creative in getting materials to people, and how could we give them more easier access to programming.”
On Wednesday, the library and Summit County Council hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its metal pickup lockers, something Compton has been looking forward to for quite some time.
“We’ve had a locker in a small shed in Henefer since 2018, thanks to a grant from the county,” he said. “After the success of that program, we made a request to the county to get one of these in Kamas.”
The original intent was to put a new locker inside the Kamas Valley building and give patrons access via a door code or library card to get into the building, Compton said.
“Then we found the vendor we work with had outdoor units, and the cost for these outdoor units were half of what the indoor units cost,” he said. “The outdoor lockers were about $15,000 each, so we took advantage of the price and brought two for the price of one. That way we wouldn’t have to deal with security issues of granting people access to the inside of the buildings after hours.”
To utilize the lockers, patrons can place check-out orders through the Summit County Library website, thesummitcountylibrary.org, Compton said.
Lockers are available for all Summit County Library card holders, and cards are free to all Summit County residents and people who work in the county, he said.
“When you place an order, you get to choose which location you want to pick up your items,” Compton said. “You can select Locker KJ or Locker Kamas, and once you select one of those locations, that’s where we’ll put your holds.”
After the library staff loads one of the 17 cabinets with the order, they will notify the patron via email, text or phone call, depending on preferences, that the items are available for pickup, Compton said.
“All the patrons have to do is bring their library cards and scan them on the locker’s touch screen, or if they know their library card number, they can type it in and the door will pop open,” he said. “We’re giving patrons in those communities the chance to pick up their holds whenever it’s convenient for them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
The cabinets vary in size, according to Compton.
“Some of them are big enough to stack up about 30 books,” he said. “So we will assign the lockers according to the size of the check-out orders. You can get any item in our collection — books, DVDs and non-traditional items like board games.”
Orders will be held in the lockers for seven days, Compton said.
“If no one picks the items up, we’ll check them out to other people who want them,” he said.
While the lockers will give Summit County Library patrons access to library items 24 hours, seven days a week, the Kimball Junction and Coalville branches will also expand in-person access to their shelves from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday throughout March and April, Compton said.
“This idea also ties back into our strategic plan,” he said. “We got a lot of feedback from the community that said people wanted us to open on Sunday.”
While the library has requested funding from the county, it hasn’t been able to receive any yet, Compton said.
“So we’re trying to get creative and are taking a different approach with this pilot program,” he said. “The hope is we can capture the usage date through door counts, computer usage and how many items people check out. Then we can hopefully make a case that shows this really is a need and that the community will benefit if the county chooses to fund it permanently.”
To carry out the Sunday hour program, the Summit County Library is utilizing temporary employees and library employees who will work extra hours to fill in when they can, Compton said.
These same Sunday hours will also be available at our Coalville Branch for patrons who are registered for the library’s Open+ program, according to Compton.
“The Open+ program allows patrons to sign agreements to gain access to the Coalville branch when library staff members aren’t onsite,” he said. “Children under 18 must be accompanied by their parents or guardians in order to use the Coalville Branch’s services.”
The idea to open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. was a practical decision, Compton said.
“The Park City Library is already open on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., so we thought we’d offer some morning hours as an option,” he said. “We spoke with Adriane (Juarez), the director of the Park City Library, and she’s supportive of the idea. So we’ll see how it goes. We want to encourage people to come to the library to see what we have to offer, because it’s not just books.”