On Wednesday Sept. 12 we will host a ribbon cutting ceremony in Henefer to celebrate the grand opening of the new book lockers.
The locker program will bring library services to Henefer saving the residents the 20-minute drive to Coalville. Summit County Library Director Dan Compton explains.
“It’s just a wonderful thing for rural communities. People can have access to any materials in the Summit County library’s collection. They can go to this locker and scan their library card. The staff will bring out their holds to them and assign them to a locker and then they can come in with their card and scan it and pick up their materials.” Compton explained, “They can also return their materials at the lockers. It’s going to be a game changer for Henefer to have this kind of access whereas before they had to travel about 20 miles round trip just to even get a book or return a book. We had the bookmobile stopped there every other week, but it was only for about an hour and a half. They just didn’t have great access to our collection.”
The bookmobile will continue to come to Henefer, but the lockers will provide access 24/7.
“There’s 18 individual lockers and each locker can fit about 10 items or so. We’ll bring your items out and we can fit them into either one or two lockers.” Compton said, “When you come and scan your card it will only open the doors that have been assigned to you. It’s adjacent to where the town council meets. It’s at 150 West Center Street, it’s right in a park as well which is great to have that kind of access for the community. The town donated some space for us to house the lockers and that was one of the reasons we were able to get a grant to fund this.”
Compton heard about the program in Chicago the lockers are the first of their kind in Utah.
“The equipment itself we got a grant for $27,600 for the actual locker system and then Henefer donated the space and then Summit County library also put some funds in for the internet connection, a firewall, things like that.” Compton continued, “When it’s all said and done I would say the total project would be about $35,000 to $40,000. The equipment is expensive but when you look at the costs of actually building a library and staffing a library its actually an inexpensive option for communities to do something like this; as long as they have access to a collection somewhere and somebody can run those materials out there.”
Henefer residents will be able to request an item online or over the phone.
“Our Coalville branch librarian actually lives in Henefer so this is just going to be part of her daily routine.” Compton explained, “She’ll take materials home at night and the next morning she will deliver them to the locker. So, this will be a Monday through Friday service.”
Compton says if the lockers are a success they may place more lockers in the Oakley area.
“My next, kind of wish-list location would be the Oakley-Peoa area I think.” Compton said, “So that’s where I’m thinking of next, so we’ll see what happens. If this one’s successful who knows? I’d like to continue to explore our options.”
