{"id":26620,"date":"2020-05-28T19:14:07","date_gmt":"2020-05-28T23:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26620"},"modified":"2020-06-04T18:31:01","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T22:31:01","slug":"aurora-public-library-resumes-service-with-curbside-pickup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-public-library-resumes-service-with-curbside-pickup\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Public Library resumes service with Curbside Pickup"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Has COVID-19 stood in the way of checking out the latest\nbestseller, the latest movie release or the hottest video game rental from the\nAurora Public Library? If you hold a Library card, everything is now just a\nclick \u2013 and a curb \u2013 away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, the Aurora Public Library (APL) returned to a\nnew kind of normal, launching a curbside pickup of movies, video games and\nmore. The new service will allow members to place holds on items currently on\nAPL\u2019s shelves and, after providing the Library with your card number, have\nbooks, games, and other physical media popped by Library staff into your trunk\nto enjoy at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new service is a significant expansion of the limited\nservices APL has been offering the community since emergency orders shuttered\ntheir building at Yonge and Church \u2013 and, for members of the Library team, it\nis a welcome return to normalcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is something we were preparing for throughout the\nclosure, knowing that it might be an eventuality with some stores like hardware\nstores offering curbside pickup,\u201d says Ashely Nunn-Smith, Manager of Content,\nAccess and Innovation for the APL. \u201cWhen the government announced last Thursday\nthat we could start it, we were really happy to put the wheels in motion. We\nhave brought some staff back to implement the service, our frontline staff\nstarted last Tuesday to prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the APL, seeing a flattening of the curve was the\nbiggest hurdle in getting the curbside program in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to see that happening before we put any of our\nstaff or our customers at any more risk than we needed to,\u201d she explains. \u201cNow\nthat the Government has said we can slowly start to re-open things, we\u2019re in a\ngood position and we have processes in place. Obviously, masks, gloves and\nquarantine for items [based on] how the virus can live on different services\nand all of those things are in place to make sure that our staff and our\ncustomers will be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to take full advantage of the curbside service,\nyou first need to have a library card \u2013 either a physical card, or an\nelectronic card, an option launched at the beginning of the pandemic. With your\nlibrary card number in hand, you can log onto APL\u2019s website at aurorapl.ca to browse\nthe catalogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If something tickles your fancy, you can place a hold on\na book, movie, or video game, and, if available, the item will be pulled for\nyou by Library staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the item is secured, you will receive an email\nnotification with pickup instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parking spots outside the Library will be numbered and\nthe sign on your appointed parking spot will have instructions on how to text\nyour unique check-in number to the Library and a staff member will come out\nwith your holds and pop them into the trunk of your car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no physical contact between the staff and\ncustomers,\u201d says Ms. Nunn-Smith. \u201cCustomers will stay in their car to make sure\neveryone is safe \u2013 and you just need to pop the trunk. Now that we\u2019re at this\nstarting-to-reopen stage, we can do these things knowing we\u2019re not putting\nanyone in harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the Library, staff have been glad to be back,\nmaintaining social distance while they get everything back up and running. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to serve our customers and while we are still serving\nby offering virtual programs and all of our digital services, we wanted to have\na fuller service,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is the first step in that direction as we\ngear up for an eventual return to normal. It\u2019s not back to business as usual,\nbut it is a step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, if you are looking for Library\nprogramming, Ms. Nunn-Smith encourages people to log onto their website or find\nthem on Facebook to enjoy an array of virtual programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have done a series of Facebook Live escape rooms, writing contests, weekend writing prompts, virtual story times, read-alouds, book clubs and our staff are really putting a lot of work into translating what people might come to the physical library for into a virtual platform. I would just encourage people to go onto our website or social media and give some of them a try. They can see the smiling staff faces they\u2019re used to seeing in person through the computer!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has COVID-19 stood in the way of checking out the latest bestseller, the latest movie release or the hottest video game rental from the Aurora Public Library? If you hold a Library card, everything is now just a click \u2013 and a curb \u2013 away. On Monday, the Aurora Public Library (APL) returned to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/2020-05-28-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Vm","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 01:13:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}