The Island Free Library staff have been busy developing programs and activities that provide traditional library services, but with a twist.
One program piloted by the library staff is titled Book-In-Place: books packaged in brown bags for residents in the community.
“A few libraries have tested curbside pickup, and we weren’t ready for that; we were [under the guidelines of] shelter-inplace. I didn’t want to encourage Block Islanders to leave their home,” said Library Director Kristin Baumann. “We have a book-sale room with great books, and we started putting them in bags, and added a few surprises in the bags. We went to the Food Pantry as a test, and then we went to McAloon’s for Mother’s Day. We did Mother’s Day bags with a book about women, and we did packets of tea as a treat in the bags.”
“This is our first step to curbside delivery – we did it because we are not quite ready to circulate our collection. There’s lots of things to figure out with curbside. With our book sale books, we don’t have to take back the books from customers. With Book-In-Place we can get out to the public [books that are]
