November 20 update: Unfortunately, we have had to close our doors to the public once more due to high numbers of COVID-19 in the county. We will continue to serve the community through curbside service until further notice. Visit http://mcplib.org/covid-19-information/ for more information about service changes!
Our buildings are open! In accordance with state mandates, masks or face coverings are required to enter our buildings, and we will be operating at reduced capacity.
It’s been a looooooong 3 ½ months, and we’ve missed all our patrons terribly! We’re so excited to welcome everyone back into the libraries.
We are still going to be operating a little differently than we did before the COVID-19 pandemic, so before you visit, you should be aware of some of these changes. We will be following strict occupancy limits to encourage social distancing, so there could be a short wait at peak visiting times.
We are also asking visitors to limit their time in the building as much as possible so we can accommodate more patrons. We want everyone to have ample time to meet their needs, but we also want to allow everyone the opportunity to come in and utilize our services.
Our libraries will only be open to the public on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. This allows staff additional time for our enhanced cleaning measures of all surfaces and circulating materials.
If you can’t make it to visit us during those times, or if you just don’t feel comfortable coming inside, you can take advantage of curbside service. We will continue to offer this service by appointment on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Call us at 270-338-4760 to make an appointment between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on these days. We require at least 24 hours’ notice to get your holds ready to be picked up, so call early.
There will be additional changes inside the building, including limited seating and limited public computer availability. Staff will be unable to assist patrons on public computers, but we will continue posting video tutorials to help alleviate this need. Public computers and high-touch surfaces will be cleaned frequently.
We will also be enforcing public computer access time limits to allow everyone the opportunity to use these computers. Computer use will be limited to one hour per person.
If you need to use a public computer for an extended period of time, such as to take an online test, please notify library staff.
Magazines and children’s toys will not be available, and we will continue to only accept returned items through the drop boxes outside both buildings. All returned items will be quarantined for at least 3 days and cleaned thoroughly before they will be available for checkout again. Items will not be removed from your patron account until after this quarantine period is complete, but no late fees will be accrued during the quarantine period for items returned during this time.
We are taking steps to ensure that the items on our shelves are as clean and safe as possible. We have placed baskets throughout the stacks for any items that you remove from the shelves while browsing. It is crucial that anything touched by a visitor should be placed in these baskets and NOT replaced on the shelves so staff can properly clean and/or quarantine the item before replacing it. As such, we encourage all visitors to the building to refrain from excessive handling of the items on our shelves. We do understand that some contact is necessary for adequate access, and you should feel free to take a closer look at any items you are interested in. However, we do ask that you browse without touching as much as possible.
Hand sanitizer will be available at various locations throughout our buildings, and we encourage visitors to wash their hands or use sanitizer frequently while visiting our libraries. We will require the use of hand sanitizer before using public computers or copy machines.
Masks are required for all staff. We ask our patrons to also wear face coverings, if possible, and practice proper social distancing to ensure the safety of all our community members.
Thistle Cottage will remain closed at this time. We will also continue to provide online programming rather than in person.
These guidelines, as well as our reopening date, are subject to change based on community infection rates and recommendations from health and safety officials.
We appreciate your patience, understanding and assistance during this time as we work to continue serving our community while keeping everyone as safe as possible.
Follow us on social media for more updates!
My grandson needs a Muhlenberg county library card. How do you go about getting one with curbside pickup?
Call us on Monday and we’ll try to work something out. You can reach us at 270-338-4760.
Thank you!
Thank you. I’ll have my daughter call Monday.
Is there any way to get a list of book and movies emailed to me? I can’t keep signal long enough to navigate the website and I can’t find the app in the playstore to download it. Please help. I’ve always been a huge library user but this current system has made it so difficult I can’t even participate anymore. Any assistance I could receive would be greatly appreciated.
We’re so sorry you’re having trouble! We’ll be happy to help any way we can.
We don’t actually have an app, and unfortunately, due to the vast size of our collection, we’re unable to send out a full list of everything we have. However, if there’s a specific type of book or movie you’re interested in, or a certain author or series, we may be able to help with that. You can call our front desk at 270-338-4760 to reach a member of our circulation staff directly. You can also use the contact form on the website (http://www.mcplib.org/contact) if you prefer, but we do recommend calling if possible so you can discuss your interests with them and they can review our offerings or make recommendations as appropriate.
If you’re interested in seeing items that we’ve added recently, we also share a few of our new materials each Wednesday morning on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/muhlenbergcountypubliclibraries) and on YouTube. They’re included in a video post, but we list the titles of 4-5 new materials in the video description as well, so hopefully you’ll still be able to see that information even if the video itself has trouble loading. Those videos will be titled What’s New Wednesday, and we post a new one of those every Wednesday at 10 a.m.
As a last resort, we do offer free Wi-Fi that reaches to our library parking lots for users who need to browse the Internet. That’s available 24/7, and you should be able to access that from the rear of either library building. We also have Internet hotspots that we check out to library users, if that’s something you’re interested in. Many of our users who have poor signal at their homes have had good luck using our hotspots to temporarily access the Internet.
Hope that helps some! Please let us know if there’s anything else we can do!