SCRANTON, Pa. — All public libraries were closed during the coronavirus quarantine, leaving book lovers without the opportunity to browse the aisles for reading material. Now that Lackawanna County is in the yellow phase, the Scranton Public Library is offering curbside pickup.
"It's definitely easier to read a book than to be looking online because there's less distractions," said Seth Rambo of Scranton.
"We've had almost 80 people come through, wanting to get books over the last couple of days, and so it's been working out well," said Scranton Public Library CEO Scott Thomas.
If you've got kids at home who love to bury their heads in a good book, the Children's Library is also doing curbside pickup.
The libraries offer more than just books in their curbside service. Adrianna Shay from West Scranton was taking advantage of their printing and faxing services.
"I actually needed to get some papers faxed over, and I caught up the library, and they told me that they do the curbside, so I thought that was really good," said Shay.
So how does it work? You go to the library's website and request an item to hold. Once it's ready, someone from the library will contact you. Then all you have to do it call, text, or ring the doorbell, and your items will be delivered right to your car.
Laura Harte from Scranton is a frequent visitor to the library and is happy that this service is available.
"I think it's great, yeah, it's wonderful. Glad that we have this at least until we go green, and we're able to go inside places," said Harte.
There's also good news for people who borrowed books or other items before the shutdown. You can drop them off in the return book drop outside the building with no late fees.
"You hear people say, you know, you don't appreciate what you have until you can't use it anymore and that kind of thing, so we're happy to be able to do it," continued Thomas.