Message from our Libraries: We're Still Here

7/9/2020

On the Shoofly - July 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of the Hancock County Library System. But they were determined to continue serving the community.

- Story by Natalie Daspit, photos by Ellis Anderson

The Bay St. Louis branch of the Hancock County Library is offering curbside pickup.

On March 17, the Hancock County Library System closed its doors due to the impending health crisis. While no one knew how long it would be closed, we wanted to continue to serve the community.

During the months of the closure, we answered questions via email and social media, formed our plan for reopening, and directed everyone to our online subscriptions.

We have a fairly large collection of eBooks and audiobooks for all ages that can be checked out with a library card through your smartphone or computer. We were lucky to receive additional eBooks and audios courtesy of Tumble Books; these live on our website, http://www.hancocklibraries.info and can be accessed without a library card.

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We also offer Brainfuse, where users can receive live help from a tutor on many subjects. There are a ton of great learning tools on our website, and of course we continue to provide free wi-fi at all five of our branches.

Even though the library is not open to patrons at this time, it continues to provide valuable services to our community.

We are happy to get to see more of our patrons now that we have curbside services. If you would like to reserve books for pickup please visit our website to browse our catalog.

We are happy to get to see more of our patrons now that we have curbside services. If you would like to reserve books for pickup please visit our website to browse our catalog.

Pickup is available as follows:

Bay St. Louis, East Hancock and Waveland branches, Monday-Friday 10 am – 4 pm and Saturday 10 am – 3 pm
Kiln branch, Monday-Friday 10 am – 4 pm and Saturday, July 11 and 25, 10 am – 3 pm
Pearlington Public Library, Monday-Thursday 10 am – 4 pm, Friday and Saturday 10 am – 1 pm

While closed to the public, we’ve been using some of our time to clean, organize, and get ready to reopen. The Bay St. Louis branch has organized our different collections with the goal of providing more room on the shelves for new items.

We are also working on a plan for general beautification involving some creative signage that we are making in-house. We particularly are focused on improving the pre-teen and teen sections of the library to try to better serve those age groups.

We were determined to provide summer reading in some form this year. We have reached out to performers and will have a ton of content available to watch on our website and social media. The Mississippi Library Commission provided us with a really cool app called Beanstack, which has allowed us to create fun interactive challenges. You can win badges, write book reviews and be entered to win real prizes. In addition, we’ve brought back Adult Summer Reading challenges this year in the hope that this will help those who are still at home. For the full schedule please visit our website.

We hope everyone is staying safe, and we can’t wait to see you all back at the library as soon as possible!

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