Library Books Curbside Pick-Up
Hi, friends! Looking for a way to deliver library books through curbside pick-up? Read on for details about how other school librarians are getting books into students’ hands this way.
Teach Students How to Put Library Books on Hold
The first step in this process is to teach your school community how to request library books. Whether you use holds in your library circulation system or Google Forms, create a how-to video with Screencastify or Loom. Then share those video instructions through your school’s website, parent emails, and virtual learning platform. Share the information repeatedly, through as many channels as possible.
If you don’t yet have hold capabilities in your library’s circulation system, talk to the technology support team in your school district about how they can integrate student log-ins for other platforms to allow students to use that same log-in for the library’s online catalog. Your representative for your library’s circulation system should be able to help you with this. With a log-in, students can request books online by placing a hold, even when they are at home.
If your students are not able to create holds on your library books, you can make a Google form for student book requests. Include the link to your school’s online catalog at the top of the form. Students will complete their name, Patron or ID number, their top three book choices, and their pick-up day. For younger students, the form could include book categories instead, like dogs, cats, friends, school. You can choose picture books from those categories, instead of having early readers try to search for specific titles. Be sure to create a spreadsheet for the Google Form responses, so that you can see which books to check out to each student.
Library Book Pick-Up Systems
Here are sample systems that work for some of our Learning Librarians:
Dawn W. says: What I do is have them email me the book title and author by Sunday night. I pull them and check them out to the student on Monday mornings. They can then pick them up between 12pm – 2pm on Mondays and they call me at my school phone number when they arrive. The books they return need to be in a tied plastic bag that goes in a plastic tub. I then disinfect the books the following week.
Jenny M. says: We offer pickup/return on Mondays and Thursdays when the lunch pickup is at school. If they bring back books, we have a tub they go in for quarantine. Kids can pickup books on either Mondays or Thursdays.
Amy M. says: I had the kids use Destiny to look up books, but each week I send out a Google form so they can fill it out with books they want. It populates into a spreadsheet and I see their name, parent email, 3 book choices, and the call number for each. I sent out a screencastify to show them how to use Destiny at home (although many already knew since we have chromebooks 1:1). Then I have them come at certain time on Friday to pick them up. They don’t get out of the car. I have books bundled and ready for them as they drive up. I also have a book return bin for them to do touchless turn-in when they drive up, too.
Kristin D. says: Students put in book requests, then I went to school one day a week and worked in the library alone, in a mask and gloves, to fill their requests. I put the books, labeled with the student’s names, on a cart in front of the school during the advertised pickup time, and they came and picked them up. They also dropped off books on a different cart during that time; I wore a mask and gloves to bring them in and quarantined them for a week before returning them to circulation the next time I came in.
Maria V. says: Parents can look through catalog and email titles they want. Emails have to be in every Monday at noon, then we will have them bagged up and ready to go by that Wednesday. We leave them out front of our school with names, pick up between 8-3. Can keep for two weeks, and then we will have bins outside that they can put books into.
Quarantine the Library Books
Advice for how long we need to quarantine returned library books has varied over the last several months. Many librarians are leaving the books untouched in the return bins for 6 days, checking them in on the day before the students return to the library or to the curbside for new check-outs. I created some cute day of the week labels for your book bins, and you can grab a copy here, from my Google Drive. Color and black and white versions are included.
More Distance Learning Info
Teaching Library Lessons from a Cart
Picture Books for Online or In person Library Orientation
AASL Pandemic Resources for School Librarians
Ways School Librarians Can Serve Students in Fall 2020
Best wishes for a wonderful school year. If you’ve got a helpful hint for curbside check-out, let us know in a comment!
Hi,
I’m curious about what kind of bins schools are using to collect the books. We used trash cans to collect books during our food & materials distribution, but parents were either walking up, in which case they could gently place books in, or handing them directly to our campus supervisors through the window of the car.
Now, I’m being asked to put together a plan for our board, and they don’t seem to want any contact whatsoever. However, I don’t really want our library books being tossed into a garbage can from a car window! But I don’t think I’ll be allowed to have them hand books to the campus supervisors, even though they wear gloves. The trash cans are really deep. I’m just trying to think of bins/ ways to collect them that will protect the books but eliminate any contact with other people, if anyone has other ideas.
Also, thank you for offering to let us have a copy of the day of the week labels you made for your bins. That was very generous of you. I tried to access it, however, and it didn’t work.