Quincy Reporter

Quincy Public Library issued the following announcement on March 16.

Out of an abundance of caution for their patrons, staff, and the Quincy community in response to COVID-19 (Coronavirus), Quincy Public Library will be temporarily closing, effective at 8 pm on Monday, March 16, 2020. QPL hopes to reopen to the public on April 1, though library officials will continue to evaluate as that date draws closer.

Quincy Public Library staff will continue a shortened schedule during this two-week closure to provide limited services to patrons. Patrons may reserve materials online to be put in QPL’s 24/7 hold lockers, available at Library, at QPL’s Kiosk Branch inside County Market at 48th and Broadway, Lincoln-Douglas School, or Iles School. Patrons may place holds through QPL’s online catalog at quincylibrary.org or by calling the library at 217-223-1309. For more information on our holds lockers, visit https://www.quincylibrary.org/locker-delivery/. We’ve also put together a short video on how to place holds and choose your pick up location through our online catalog, which you can watch here: https://youtu.be/SihGS9ecqMU. Our Inter Library Loan service has been temporarily suspended, so items coming from other libraries will be temporarily unavailable.

Additionally during this time, books may be returned through QPL’s book drops located in the Quincy Mall parking lot, near Quincy Mall’s south entrance (passenger side drive up); Wal-Mart parking lot (passenger side drive up); HyVee parking lot, 12th and Harrison (driver side drive up); Save-A-Lot parking lot, 12th and Locust (driver side drive up); in the cafe inside County Market, 48th and Broadway, in front of Lincoln-Douglas School (walk up), in front of Iles School (walk up), and Quincy Public Library front entrance (walk up). To learn more about our drop boxes, visit https://www.quincylibrary.org/return-boxes/. The library will be extending all due dates and suspending fines during this period of closure.

QPL digital services will still be available including ebooks, audiobooks, digital magazines, streaming, and educational resources. These are available 24/7 from any location with an internet device. All links to access these services are available at https://www.quincylibrary.org/ebooks/. Access to our educational materials and databases is available at https://www.quincylibrary.org/research/. The library will be implementing a 60-day temporary digital access card that patrons can sign up for on the Quincy Library’s website and given a card number to access these digital services. To sign up for that card, visit https://www.quincylibrary.org/library-card/.

The library is also working to extend wifi services to be available 24/7 around the library’s parking lot for patrons to access during this closure.

Additionally, in response to guidelines from the CDC and State of Illinois, all programs, events, and room usage will be canceled for the next eight weeks, until May 11, 2020.

“This was a difficult decision to make,” said Director Kathleen Helsabeck. “Given the new guidelines coming out daily, our ultimate goal is to keep our community safe. We hope people will take advantage of our limited services and digital resources during this time.”

The Friends of the Library Book Sale has been tentatively rescheduled for May 21-23, 2020.

Original source can be found here.