As winter continues to loom over Fort St John, the library is adjusting. Its homebound delivery service’s radius will shrink as of Nov. 1.
As of the first of this month, the Fort St John Public Library will only deliver within ten kilometres of its 100 Avenue location downtown. The delivery service is operated by a member of the library’s interlibrary loan team, who personally drives to drop off the requested books.
“In the winter, (the radius) shrinks to about ten kilometres. That’s obviously just for safety (and for) saving time and wear and tear on their vehicle,” said Matthew Rankin, the director of library services at the Fort St John Public Library Association. In the warmer, drier months, the library doubles this radius.
Library card holders in areas B and C of the Peace River regional district are eligible for the service, which is provided by the north Peace-based library. He said it “tends to favour more older patrons who are either in a nursing home or aren’t able to leave their apartments or their homes.”
People beyond the library’s radius do not need to go without its services. Instead, Rankin suggested they loan electronic books or ask someone they know in the city to pick up books for them. To expand the service beyond its current level, he said the barrier boils down to a common one for the library – budget constraints.
“Homebound is important to me. I wish we could do more at the moment, but we’re really limited by the resources and staff time we have available. Again, it comes down to funding,” he explained.
The full 20 kilometre service is slotted to return in March, and the library said it will not be delivering any books during extreme weather. To have books delivered, library card holders should get in touch with access services.
