Shelves at the Salem Public Library’s Broadway Street location on Feb. 18. (Saphara Harrell/Salem Reporter)
Salem bookworms running out of reading material are in luck.
The Salem Public Library, which has been closed since March 16, is now offering curbside pickup by appointment for holds placed before or during the closure.
About 300 items were sitting on shelves awaiting pick-up when the library closed, city librarian Sarah Strahl said. Another 1,000 items that are part of the city’s collection have been placed on hold since.
Strahl said it’s a pilot program that will let librarians “work out the kinks along the way” before offering a more general curbside pickup service for city residents. Those eligible for the pilot have received an email with details about signing up for a pick-up slot online or by calling (503) 588-6315.
All pickups are at the main Broadway Street branch, even for patrons who normally use the West Salem library.
A building reopening, with people browsing shelves indoors, is likely months away, Strahl said. Patrons who checked out a stack of books or DVDs in early March needn’t panic – those items won’t be due until at least July 1, likely the earliest date they’ll reopen book drops.
“We’re going to be waiving fines and being really generous with people because we understand what’s going on in everybody’s life right now,” Strahl said.
The library is part of a 17-member regional cooperative sharing materials between libraries in Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties. For now, the courier service that brings books from one library to another isn’t running, Strahl said, so patrons in Salem can only get books in the Salem collection.
Patrons who place holds now would be able to pick them up when the pilot program expands to all city residents, a step Strahl said is likely a few weeks away.
“We don’t want to get people’s hopes up too, too high,” she said.
Until Memorial Day weekend, library employees were working from home. Now, some have come into the temporary downtown branch on Broadway Street to prepare for a first round of hold distribution.
Library users with fines from before the closure are also in luck – the library is running a virtual Food for Fines program through June 15. A $1 donation to Marion Polk Food Share will cancel out $5 of fines, with details on the library website.
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Correction: This article was updated to correct the number of holds waiting for pickup before the library closure.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
