The Everett Public Libraries are being reimaged in light of the COVID pandemic. As of July 27, the Library has had over 1,400 physical items checked out to patrons through our Library-to-Go program. Out of the 25 libraries in the NOBLE (North of Boston Library Exchange) system, Everett Public Libraries was the first library system to roll-out a library-to-go/curbside pickup program – Gloucester and Lynnfield rolled out on the same date, June 6. Both Gloucester and Lynnfield have not endured nearly as many COVID-19 cases in their municipalities as Everett has: Gloucester has 264 cases, Lynnfield has 98 cases, while Everett has over 1,800.
The City resumed Interlibrary Loans (ILL) on July 6, meaning that the Everett Public Libraries are both fulfilling patrons’ requests from other participating NOBLE libraries as well as having our patrons’ requests fulfilled via delivery to our branches if a book requested is not available at our physical branch.
Procedures:
•Patrons are allowed to reserve materials if they have a library card. Brown paper bags with the patron’s first initial and last name will be filled with the requested items and placed on a table for pickup. Pickups will be made available to patrons Monday – Friday, 10:00am – 4:00pm at both the Parlin Library (410 Broadway) and Shute Library (781 Broadway). The Parlin pickup location is in the first-floor atrium. The Shute pickup location is in the front entrance atrium.
•Requests/holds must be made prior to coming to the Libraries. Patrons are not able to enter the buildings, peruse the stacks, nor make requests for items while onsite. Rather, patrons may elect one of the following three options for selecting items before coming to the Libraries:
*Phone: Parlin – 617-394-2300; Shute – 617-394-2308
*Email: Parlin – [email protected] ; Shute – HYPERLINK “mailto:[email protected]” [email protected]
*Online: Visit our online catalog (https://everett.noblenet.org/eg/opac/home), peruse the libraries’ collections, and place a hold.
•For those who do not yet have an Everett Library Card, appointments can be made via the phone numbers or email addresses above. A staff member will inform you of a date and time to come as well as what identification materials you must bring with you. A staff member will provide you with a sheet to fill out when you arrive and, once complete, print you out a personal library card.
•For the safety of our staff and our patrons, items must be returned via the book drop found at the exterior of each building. At the Parlin Library, the book drop is located to the right of the first-floor entrance. At the Shute Library, the book drop is located to the left of the front entrance. Once returned, items will be quarantined for 72 hours before returning to the stacks, which may cause a slight delay in the availability of some items.
•Overdrive:
Compared to 2019, the months of April, May, and June have seen a substantial increase (over 20%) in our Overdrive circulation. Overdrive Circulation focuses on audiobooks and eBooks available on our online catalogue that allow patrons to enjoy materials without leaving their homes.
•Weeding:
After a long time of sitting on the shelves and/or circulating to patrons for many years, materials will inevitably become outdated, marked up, torn, tattered, or lost. To ensure sufficient space on our shelves for new materials and to keep our materials fully up to date with the ever-changing world around us, “weeding” is a necessity of any successful library. With patrons not allowed in the physical library buildings for health and safety purposes during this pandemic, our professional librarians have focused heavily on making significant progress on weeding outdated and/or decrepit materials that have not been checked out of our library for years – in some cases, the materials haven’t left the library since pre-2000!
*Throughout the 2019 calendar year, an average month saw 1,022 individual items weeded out of our collection. In May 2020, we had 1,949 items weeded; in June 2020 we had 3,711 items weeded, bringing our monthly average during these two pandemic-months to 2,830, or nearly triple our 2019 monthly average!
•Added Patrons:
During the shutdown and with so many people wisely following guidelines to practice social distancing, proper hand-washing, and mask-wearing, or to stay within the confines of their homes when they can, enjoying the wide array of things that a Library has to offer has become more critical now than ever. We are happy to see that in May and June of 2020, the Everett Public Libraries have added 253 new patrons, the fourth-highest among NOBLE public libraries (with Beverly beating us for the top-3 spot by only two patrons).
Social Media + Website Update + Local History
•The Everett Public Libraries has created a new Facebook page ( HYPERLINK “https://www.facebook.com/EverettPublicLibrary/” https://www.facebook.com/EverettPublicLibrary/ or search “Everett Public Libraries” on the Facebook search bar). In addition to communicating updates as they arise, we have recently begun a “More Than A Name” series, which provides a history/background of the people behind some of the most influential and impactful names of our City, including those whose names are attached to our libraries, our schools, our parks, etc.
•The Everett Public Libraries also has experienced a recent update to its website ( HYPERLINK “https://www.noblenet.org/everett/” https://www.noblenet.org/everett/), both cleaning up some dead links, adding our COVID-19 policies/Library-to-Go procedures, and revising a great deal of the information contained on the site. This is an ongoing process as we convert the entire site to a new coding system, but the progress is certainly already noticeable.