Officials unveil state’s first 24-hour library in Palos Hills

Users of the region’s library will now be able to access physical books and DVDs in Palos Hills all day and all night in the first offer of the genre in Illinois.

The staff, managers and customers of the Green Hills public library met last week for a ribbon cup ceremony to officially inaugurate its new library 24 hours a day.

The automatic distributor of futuristic aspect library equipment is outside the main entrance to the library, 10331 S. Interlochen Drive in Palos Hills.

Teri Wilson, head of the boss services, said that the new feature “gives customers the possibility of browsing, checking and returning equipment, whether we are open or closed.”

“This is useful for many customers, especially those who cannot come directly during opening hours,” she said. “No need to rush to recover the available sockets or consult last minute films for a film or a late evening book.”

Library staff will be allocated daily to unload the return bins, available recovery and fill out the returned documents, Wilson said.

“For the moment, staff are falling once a day, but we are planning that time is spent that we will have to increase the number of times we check it daily,” she said.

This is not a problem with the current weather, but she said that staff members were a little nervous about the machine working in winter “and being assigned to go outside when it’s cold. They don’t expect it at all!”

The 24 -hour library is monitored by three external cameras for security, given its novelty and being outside and unattended. Wilson hopes customers will kiss the new way of checking and browsing the library documents at any time of the day or night.

“Times have changed. This is another option, another format for materials, especially for those who are warned in technology,” she shared. “We hope it is more practical. Customers tend to be intrigued and fascinated by the 24 -hour library and it belongs to its library. Someone said we are a pioneer in technology. “

The acquisition of the machine took some time, said Jane Jenkins, who has been director of the library for 10 years, inspired after hearing a conference by the American Library Association several years ago. “It took this time to materialize because other projects continued to come on the way, but I always knew that I wanted to bring this to the community.”

It also took time to the library to save enough money. “I am finally able to move forward with this, in the financial situation to obtain this library 24 hours a day without adding any fees to our taxpayers, to customers. There was no increase in their taxes to pay for this,” she said, adding that the library has the machine.

Library managers have chosen to keep the machine nearby instead of selecting a remote location. “Somewhere at the bottom, I would like to put it off site, maybe at Hickory Hills, which is another city that we serve. But for the first, having it is obviously more practical to store and help customers.”

Already, the machine attracted “a lot of curiosity from customers while they entered the library. I could see them stop, look, probably thinking “What is it?” “Said Jenkins.

Its disclosure on September 13 has become a point of community pride. The past and current members of the Breen Hills Library Board, city officials and the library dignitaries across the state level – Monica Harris, executive director of rails, and Aaron Skog, executive director of the Swan services – came out to cut the ribbon and see the demonstrations of the new functionality.

“Having library, staff and customers administrators, with the director of Rails and the SWAN services director, being part of this service, which made me very special,” said Jenkins.

Although the limits of the Green Hills public library district include all Palos hills, Hickory Hills and part of justice, anyone who has a library card in the swan system can check the equipment. “Say (your) library has been closed for a day during the service and you really want a book or a DVD.

The machine works very similar to an automatic distributor. Customers scan their library card, enter the pin and can review the selections on three carousels with a number below each element. A touch screen guides customers throughout the process and verified materials appear in the front slit. The items can be returned to another slit.

The selections in the machine differ from the main collection of the library.

“Books and films are chosen by collection selectors. They focus on what is new and popular, “said Wilson. “The differences between the 24 -hour library and the” regular “collection are the materials tend to be the cream of harvesting, heavy strikers (authors), new versions recognized on television, news, podcasts and book conferences.”

Jenkins said that staff members who organize the equipment “will constantly select fresh and relevant items to put in the machine. They will take a look at the machine and see “Wow.” There are a lot of empty slots here. ” »»

She said that employees seem to be happy to work in a library that “always looks towards the future” and to try “new things that we can bring to our community that will benefit them and their library experience”.

“I wanted to give our customers greater flexibility in their library experience,” said Jenkins. “We all put such busy lives, busy schedules, juggling families, jobs. … People do work nights. Sometimes it is difficult to enter the library to cover or take your grip. ”

Melinda Moore is an independent journalist for Pioneer Press.