New Hoover library book drops receive positive reception

The Hoover Public Library has received positive feedback about the six new remote book drops that have been placed in the outer parts of the city, Director Amanda Borden said.

On Oct. 1, the library began operating remote book drops at Greystone Elementary School, the Hoover Public Safety Center parking lot, Hoover YMCA near Deer Valley, Ross Bridge (across from Hoover Fire Station No. 10), Hoover Metropolitan Stadium (near Stadium Trace Parkway) and the old Bluff Park Elementary School.

Those locations are in addition to the outdoor drive-through book drop just outside the library and another that was placed at Hoover Fire Station No. 7 in Inverness in October 2018.

Borden said the new book drops are a result of needs identified in the library’s long-term plan that was put together in 2017. Community members told library officials that a lack of convenience was what kept them from using the library more.

One of the biggest problems identified was the crowded library parking lot, so library officials began looking for ways to make access to library services more convenient.

The remote book drop at the Inverness fire station hasn’t been used as much as library officials anticipated, but Borden suspects that is because it is not in a highly visible location.

Library officials put a lot of thought into picking the locations for the six book drops installed this year and selected places they thought people would appreciate. Borden said so far, the response has been good.

“There has been a lot of interest. People are excited,” Borden said. “We’re getting a lot of good feedback.”

“I think it’s great. It’s really convenient because I do get a lot of library books,” Joseph said.

She visits the library once or twice a month, and now she doesn’t have to make the 10- to 15-minute drive to and from the library to return them. She’s close enough to the old Bluff Park Elementary School that she can easily walk there.

Borden said it’s still too early to tell how much the book drops will be used, but on the first pickup day, couriers retrieved seven bins full of books from the locations in Bluff Park, Ross Bridge and the Hoover YMCA.

Library officials started out picking up at each book drop two to three times per week, but Borden said they would continue to evaluate the numbers and make any necessary changes.

Patrons don’t have to worry about late fees as long as they put their books in the drops on or before the due date. Library officials mark a book as being returned on the date of the previous pickup, she said. If pickups were made on Wednesday and Friday, a book picked up on Friday would be marked as returned on the preceding Wednesday, she said.

Other media, including CDs, DVDs and audiobooks can be put in the same containers with the books at the new locations. There are separate receptacles at the library and at the Inverness pickup site, but officials determined there is plenty of room to put both groups of items in the same receptacle at the new locations.

The six new book drops cost about $36,000 to $38,000 combined, and $20,000 of that came from a grant from the federal government’s Institute of Museum and Library Services, administered by the Alabama Public Library Service, Borden said.