- April 26, 2024
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Although COVID-19 has reduced its hours, the Flagler County Public Library has served thousands of community members since the pandemic started, creating new programs to connect with residents as it's reduced its on-site hours.
"Libraries have had a difficult time during COVID," Library Director Holly Albanese said during a Flagler County Commission meeting March 15. "Many libraries across the nation closed when it all happened, and it's no different in the state of Florida. Many libraries did close, and there are some libraries that are still closed to this day."
Not Flagler's: The county library closed on March 17, 2020, but then immediately started a curbside service, reopened at 25% capacity in May 2020 and 50% capacity in June 2020, and added some evening hours for K-12 student.
The library remains on limited hours: 57 hours per week at the main branch on Palm Coast Parkway, and 40 hours per week at the Bunnell branch on Moody Boulevard. Only about 30 of the library's 150 pre-COVID volunteers have been active.
Since last May, Albanese said, the library has held 142 virtual programs that reached a combined 46,000 people, and has been used as a polling location for three elections, seeing about 40% of the county's in-person voters.
In July, it finished adding credit and debit card payment capabilities, a credit and debit feee payment system that can be used for regular library fees and also passport service fees, and a print management system that can accept credit and debit payment.
The library was awarded $35,000 in CARES grant money last August, but that money is making its way through the state system and just starting to arrive locally. One benefit: A book sanitizer so that books can be cleaned and quickly returned to circulation rather than held in quarantine.
"They're getting out to the public much faster," Albanese said.
The library is also planning to install a locker system, similar to those used by Amazon, to allow people to pick up reserved-ahead items after hours.
Despite the pandemic, the library circulated 380,000 collection items in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, and presented 375 youth programs and 75 programs for adults, Albanese said.
