Have you ever wondered what goes on in the library as staff prepare for curbside appointments? Well you’re in luck, because today we are going to take you on a virtual tour of curbside prep at the La Plata branch!
There’s a lot of work that has to be done before our first curbside appointment of the day.
One of the first tasks is to gather all of the items that were returned in the book drop and place them on the quarantine tables. Any items that are ready to come out of quarantine will need to be checked in to remove them from customer’s accounts and put them back in circulation.
Since we are a tri-county system, every weekday morning we get a delivery of items coming from our fellow Charles County branches, as well as from St. Mary’s and Calvert County. Our delivery bins need to be emptied and all the items scanned in. The materials will either be put on a cart to be shelved, or will pop up with a “hold” slip for pickup at La Plata.
And what about hold requests for items that we have on our shelves? Well, those have to be retrieved and scanned, too! Some will stay at La Plata for our customers, while others will be placed in the appropriate branch bin (once they are emptied!) to be picked up by our delivery driver the next morning.
Only after the above tasks are completed can we actually begin to prepare for the afternoon curbside appointments. We check our daily appointment report and begin placing the appropriate items for each customer in the corresponding appointment time slot on the tables.
Once all the appointments have been pulled and placed on the table for that day, staff can begin checking out the items to the customer’s account. We make sure to bag or rubber band the items together, and place their curbside appointment information label where it is easily visible to staff. We arrange everything on the cart by time slots, and off it goes downstairs so we can be ready to bring your items out when you arrive for your scheduled appointment!
We hope you have enjoyed this brief glimpse into the curbside process at La Plata. We are so happy to be able to offer this service while our buildings are currently closed, and we hope you are taking advantage of it!
