Library Exploring New Opportunity in Bloomsdale
(Ste. Genevieve, MO) After four years and deliberation between the board, commissioners, and patrons the difficult decision has been made to vacate the current Bloomsdale Library location effective January 1, 2023. “After looking at the numbers, we noticed that more residents were picking up their holds over any other service we offered,” Library Director Shawn Long said. “That got me to start looking at how we can be more effective with both our staff and our budget. After discussing options with other libraries, a 24/7 locker made the most sense for our Bloomsdale area.”
Patrons will still be able to call and put books on hold through the main branch in Ste. Genevieve, and they will still be able to pick up those titles in Bloomsdale. They will just need their library card to pick up their items.
“If you you’ve ever used an ATM, you can use this machine,” Shawn said. “We had myself, a staff member, and two of our board members check out a locker system in Cape Girardeau and we were all impressed with its abilities. It’s very intuitive and straightforward. It reminded me of a scaled down RedBox.”
Shawn hopes that this will increase usage for the library, while offering the community 24/7 access to their items. The hope is also to bring more awareness to library services throughout the entire county.
“We have an obligation to our community to ensure that we offer library services throughout the county, but at the same time we also have to be good stewards of the money we are allocated,” Shawn stated. “After identifying the costs for keeping the doors open compared to a locker system, this will actually save us money in the long run and offer the community 24/7 access to their materials.”
“The idea will be to fill it every Wednesday at first, and then hopefully, as usage increases, we will add more days as needed,” Shawn stated. Once installation is finished, we hope to spread awareness about the machine and teach our patrons how to use it. There is no exact date as to when the installation will be finished. Residents who have questions or concerns about this new service are encouraged to reach out to the Library Director Shawn Long at [email protected] or 573-883-3358
Displayed below is our old Bloomsdale branch.
