[Michlib-l] Successful Curbside Pickup Services: Best Practices

[Andrea Ingmire]

Several of you requested that I share responses with you.
I didn't get many... my theory is that many of us were working up to
getting this off the ground, but didn't actually get it done before the
stay home order came out.

Sharing what I have:

We did curbside for a week, and I expect to offer it entirely or in part
when we reopen. While not everything we did will work for you, since PWPL
is a much bigger library, here is what we did, and a few recommendations.



1. If patrons have internet access and can place holds online, pull them as
normal.

2. If patrons do not have internet access, allow them to call to request
books. Sometimes, they may not know what they want and have vague
suggestions. This will end up being a combination of requests and reader
advisory. ("I want two Debbie Macombers" or "I like books about people,
choose something for me.")

3. Normal checkout limits apply.

4. If they have cell phones, ask that they call when they arrive. (This is
similar to the Marquette Food Co-op's system.)

5. If they only have landlines, ask for an estimated time of arrival or
schedule it with them. (This applies to many of our patrons, who are older.)

6. Our holds notifications consist of a staff member calling people; that
did not change.

7. Wear a mask and fresh gloves for each and every curbside interaction.

8. I recommend putting items in a plastic bag to hand to the patron.



We also did curbside faxing that week. I don't particularly recommend this,
as it requires money to be exchanged.



Jessica Holman

Negaunee Public Library




We did curbside pickup for 5 days before calling it quits. Here are my
responses:



1.   Did you impose limits on # of titles for pickup/patron?
No. We had enough of our staff still reporting to work that this wasn't an
issue for us; we had time to get them all checked out and brought to the
curbside pretty quickly, even if they had a dozen books.

2.   Did you have a family pack, or some other librarian collected set of
picture books by topic to offer families who may not have time to place
individual titles on hold?
We didn't plan for this, but we ended up doing it for a few patrons! Some
of our regulars who don't use Enterprise, but still stop in to checkout up
to 25 kids books each week, called us with some subject ideas, and our
staff hand-picked their books. We were only able to do this is a family
called ahead of time, and then we let them know when the books were
available.

3.   Any advice on how to stagger pickup appointments, or how to encourage
folks to spread out while waiting for pickup?
There were times when we got pretty busy, with a line of cars waiting out
front. We don't have a parking lot that abuts our building like you do
thought; maybe you could use cones and signage in your parking lot to
direct curbside pickup patrons? We really encouraged our patrons to call
ahead (sort of like an appointment) but they often just showed up outside
and gave us a call, or knocked on the door. This wasn't really ideal
because sometimes we were trying to locate their holds from the stacks.

4.   What about your ILS generated holds notifications? Did you change
messages with new instructions regarding curbside pickup?
No, but I'm so glad you mentioned this. We are considering returning to
curbside pickup as the 'first phase' in our reopening and maybe we ought to
adjust those notifications, too. Good idea!

5.   Any other helpful tips, or even things that didn't work for you?
One thing we tried to be really careful with was hygiene safety. If a
patron called to pick up their holds, we always asked them if they were
symptomatic, and if they were, we told them we cannot help them. A lot of
people want to get out of their car and walk to the front door, and we
really tried to discourage this. We also always delivered books to the
passenger side of the vehicle if there was no one seated there. That way we
could maintain distance from the driver (we would wave and motion for them
to roll the window down). Staff also had a glove on in case they would need
to open a patron's door.


We did curbside pickup for 5 days before calling it quits. Here are my
responses:



1.   Did you impose limits on # of titles for pickup/patron?
No. We had enough of our staff still reporting to work that this wasn't an
issue for us; we had time to get them all checked out and brought to the
curbside pretty quickly, even if they had a dozen books.

2.   Did you have a family pack, or some other librarian collected set of
picture books by topic to offer families who may not have time to place
individual titles on hold?
We didn't plan for this, but we ended up doing it for a few patrons! Some
of our regulars who don't use Enterprise, but still stop in to checkout up
to 25 kids books each week, called us with some subject ideas, and our
staff hand-picked their books. We were only able to do this is a family
called ahead of time, and then we let them know when the books were
available.

3.   Any advice on how to stagger pickup appointments, or how to encourage
folks to spread out while waiting for pickup?
There were times when we got pretty busy, with a line of cars waiting out
front. We don't have a parking lot that abuts our building like you do
thought; maybe you could use cones and signage in your parking lot to
direct curbside pickup patrons? We really encouraged our patrons to call
ahead (sort of like an appointment) but they often just showed up outside
and gave us a call, or knocked on the door. This wasn't really ideal
because sometimes we were trying to locate their holds from the stacks.

4.   What about your ILS generated holds notifications? Did you change
messages with new instructions regarding curbside pickup?
No, but I'm so glad you mentioned this. We are considering returning to
curbside pickup as the 'first phase' in our reopening and maybe we ought to
adjust those notifications, too. Good idea!

5.   Any other helpful tips, or even things that didn't work for you?
One thing we tried to be really careful with was hygiene safety. If a
patron called to pick up their holds, we always asked them if they were
symptomatic, and if they were, we told them we cannot help them. A lot of
people want to get out of their car and walk to the front door, and we
really tried to discourage this. We also always delivered books to the
passenger side of the vehicle if there was no one seated there. That way we
could maintain distance from the driver (we would wave and motion for them
to roll the window down). Staff also had a glove on in case they would need
to open a patron's door.

Dillon Geshel

Portage District Library

We were able to offer curbside only for three days after March 16 before
the county health department informed us that we had to stop.  We simply
took phone calls for requests and asked that patrons call as they were
pulling up to the library.  Some patrons just asked us to pull a few movies
we thought they’d like.  Others asked for books by specified authors.  We
never had the chance to customize book sets, but that is a great idea.  We
adhered to our limits of 15 items out at a time and a limit of 5 movies at
a time (we did away with movie fees at the beginning of the year).



Mimi Herrington, Director
Bad Axe Area District Library
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~



*Andrea IngmireLibrary DirectorPeter White Public Library*
(906) 226-4303 (office)
(906) 250-0080 (cell)
(906) 226-1783 (fax)
*http://pwpl.info/ <http://pwpl.info/>*




On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 2:19 PM Andrea Ingmire <aingpwpl at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> Looking for feedback from any library who ran a successful curbside pickup
> process prior to EO 2020-20 when all of that had to cease.
>
> I'd love to hear how you addressed these questions:
>
>    1. Did you impose limits on # of titles for pickup/patron?
>    2. Did you have a family pack, or some other librarian collected set
>    of picture books by topic to offer families who may not have time to place
>    individual titles on hold?
>    3. Any advice on how to stagger pickup appointments, or how to
>    encourage folks to spread out while waiting for pickup?
>    4. What about your ILS generated holds notifications? Did you change
>    messages with new instructions regarding curbside pickup?
>    5. Any other helpful tips, or even things that didn't work for you?
>
> We were focused on getting previously requested holds out for people, so
> we didn't get an actual curbside system setup, and I'd like to be ready for
> offering this as soon as we get the green light to open in some capacity.
>
> Thanks!
> Andrea
> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
>
>
>
> *Andrea IngmireLibrary DirectorPeter White Public Library*
> (906) 226-4303 (office)
> (906) 250-0080 (cell)
> (906) 226-1783 (fax)
> *http://pwpl.info/ <http://pwpl.info/>*
>
>
>
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