Area library users will now be able to access physical books and DVDs in Palos Hills all day and all night in the first offering of its kind in Illinois.
Green Hills Public Library staff, officials and patrons gathered last week for a ribbon cutting ceremony to officially usher in its new 24-hour library.
The futuristic-looking library material vending machine sits outside the main entrance of the library, 10331 S. Interlochen Drive in Palos Hills.
Teri Wilson, head of Patron Services, said the new feature “gives patrons the opportunity to browse, check out and return materials whether we are open or closed.”
“It’s useful to a lot of patrons, especially those who are unable to come in directly during opening hours,” she said. “No need to rush over to retrieve available holds or check out last-minute films for a late-night movie or book read.”
Library staff will be assigned daily to unload the return bins, shelve available holds, and refill the returned materials, Wilson said.
“At this time, staff go down once a day, but we anticipate as time goes on that we will need to increase the amount of times we check it daily,” she said.
That’s not a problem with the current weather, but she said staff members are a little nervous about the machine working in the winter “and being assigned to go outdoors when it gets cold. They are not looking forward to that at all!”
The 24-hour library is monitored by three external cameras for security, given its newness and being outside and unattended. Wilson hopes patrons will embrace the new way to check out and browse library materials any time of day or night.
“Times have changed. It’s another option, another format for materials, especially for those who are tech savvy,” she shared. “We hope it’s more convenient. Patrons tend to be intrigued and fascinated by the 24-hour library and that it belongs to their library. Someone mentioned we are trailblazing in technology.”
Acquiring the machine took quite a while, said Jane Jenkins, who’s been library director for 10 years, inspired after she heard about it during an American Library Association conference several years ago. “It’s taken this amount of time to come to fruition because other projects kept coming in the way, but I always knew that I wanted to bring this to the community.”
It also took time for the library to save enough money. “I’m finally in the position to move forward with this, in the financial position to get this 24-hour library without adding any costs to our taxpayers, patrons. There was no increase in their taxes to pay for this,” she said, adding that the library owns the machine.
Library officials chose to keep the machine close instead of selecting a remote location. “Somewhere down the line, I might like to put it off-site, maybe in Hickory Hills, which is another town we serve. But for the first one, having it on the premises is obviously more convenient for stocking and assisting patrons.”
Already, the machine has drawn “a lot of curiosity from patrons as they were walking into the library. I could see them stopping, looking, probably thinking ‘What is this?’” Jenkins said.
Its unveiling on Sept. 13 became a point of community pride. Past and present members of the Green Hills Library Board, city officials and statewide library dignitaries — Monica Harris, executive director of RAILS, and Aaron Skog, executive director of SWAN Services — came out to cut the ribbon and view demonstrations of the new feature.
“To have Library trustees, staff and patrons, together with the director of RAILS and the director of SWAN Services be a part of this service made it very special to me,” Jenkins shared.
Although the Green Hills Public Library District’s boundaries include all of Palos Hills, Hickory Hills and part of Justice, anyone who has a library card in the SWAN system can check out material. “Say (your) library was closed for an in-service day and you really want a book or DVD. You could come to Green Hills library to browse this collection of popular items and see something you could check out,” she said.
The machine works very similar to a vending machine. Patrons scan their library card, enter the PIN and can review selections on three carousels with a number below each item. A touch screen guides patrons through the process, and checked out materials appear in the front slot. Items can be returned in another slot.
Selections in the machine differ from the library’s main collection.
“Books and movies are chosen by collection selectors. They focus on what’s new and popular,” Wilson explained. “The differences between the 24-hour library and the ‘regular’ collection is materials tend to be the cream of the crop, heavy hitters (authors), new releases recognized on TV, news, podcasts and book talks.”
Jenkins said staff members who curate the material will “constantly be selecting fresh and relevant items to put into the machine. They’ll take a look at the machine and see ‘Wow. There are quite a few empty slots here.’”
She said employees seem to be pleased to be working at a library that’s “always looking toward the future” and trying “new things we can bring to our community that will benefit them and their library experience.”
“I wanted to give our patrons greater flexibility in their library experience,” Jenkins said. ”We all lead such busy lives, busy schedules, juggling families, jobs. … People do work nights. Sometimes it’s hard to get into the library to browse or pick up your hold.”
Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.