With businesses and services around beginning to work gradually toward reopening, the Guilford Free Library is also taking its first big steps toward an eventual return to normal with a special, “no-contact” pick-up and drop-off service, providing access to physical books and DVDs for the first time since March.

The program, which launched last week, allows patrons to call and order five books or DVDs from the library’s catalog, which are then left on a table outside the building at a designated time for them to pick up.

Though the library has not been idle during the pandemic, running many virtual programs and continuing to provide references services, e-books, and other online resources, Director Rob McCoole said that allowing patrons to safely access the physical contents of the library is an important milestone, though he said next steps are far from certain.

“I’m always reluctant to just use a simple word like ‘open,’ like it’s back to the way it was,” McCoole said.

But allowing residents to get their hands on the contents of the library is something important on its own that McCoole said has already proved very popular, with the library putting out about 20 books and DVDs an hour.

“The response has been great. As expected, it was really intense for the first couple of hours,” he said.

There will be no late fees or check-out time limits, according to McCoole. The library is focusing on allowing people to be safe and not requiring unnecessary trips to return material. He also said that while staff members are trying to adhere to the five-item limit, that is also at least a little flexible, particularly for children’s books.

The demand has been eclectic, according to McCoole, with patrons clamoring for not only movies and popular fiction, but also non-fiction, academic work, and young adult books.

“I think that is one of the beautiful things about it. The range is always very broad,” McCoole said.

For safety reasons, the library is limiting the number of staff putting together orders inside the building, and any books or DVDs that are returned being placed in a minimum of a three-day quarantine, according to McCoole.

The library also plans to allowing people to place holds through the library’s online catalog in order to reserve books, though McCoole warned that it would be hard to predict when people would receive those books or materials as there is no delivery service between libraries right now, and the library isn’t enforcing due dates.

“Yes, you can place a hold, but if it’s not on our shelves, there’s no expectation that that will be filled anytime soon,” McCoole said.

With plans to open up the no-contact program to out-of-town residents this week, McCoole said library staff has the ability to increase its capacity of pick-ups, though it is already looking ahead to new services and moving the library forward.

McCoole said he has been in touch with other nearby libraries and regional organizations, coordinating what they are offering and what their timelines will be for next steps.

Guilford worked with Branford’s Blackstone and Stony Creek libraries to all begin offering curbside pickup services at the same time, McCoole said. Lining up the timing on these things is very important, McCoole said, because in Connecticut, anyone can access the services of any library regardless of what town they live in.

“That’s a huge portion of a circulation, especially since the Madison library closed down,” McCoole said. “We do get a lot of out-of-town traffic.”

Though there is far too much uncertainty to put any kind of hard date on anything, McCoole said he envisioned being able to offer other “curbside” or outdoor services in the near future—things like drop-off faxes or phoning in other research type projects.

Letting people back into the building will likely begin on an appointment-only basis, with people reserving a room, a computer, or just a time to visit a research room, according to McCoole. Any reopening will also require a lot of retrofitting, McCoole said, with signs or other indicators to promote social distance, plexiglass at librarians’ desks, and an extensive cleaning routine.

On the positive side, McCoole said that many of the adaptations and programs the library has put together have been so successful there are plans to continue them even as the library begins to return to normal.

“Some of the programs that occurred in Zoom actually worked really well in Zoom and maybe will be forever in Zoom,” McCoole said. “And this curbside pickup...if it just became sort of a regular,everyday process, I don’t think it would be too cumbersome to keep something like it in effect.”

For more information on the Guilford Free Library and its programs, visit www.guilfordfreelibrary.org. The library is also offering reference librarian services via phone. To speak to a librarian, call 203-654-9844 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.