As Hampshire County Council Executive Member for Recreation & Heritage I am very grateful for the support that residents have shown during the lockdown period and the way people have responded positively to the different ways of accessing Hampshire Library Service through the innovative use of technology.

During lockdown there have been many tens of thousands of eBook loans as well as services such as Baby Rhyme Time being delivered via Facebook. Our staff have worked very hard throughout and now extra hard to get our libraries open again.

There are some changes that visitors will notice:

Ready Reads: We Select You Collect

· Library staff will handpick a selection of books for customers who complete an online form call us in advance. These can be collected without queuing.

Book Lending and Short Visits

· To reduce wait times and allow as many people as possible to visit our libraries, people are asked to limit their visits to a maximum of 30 minutes and to keep browsing to an absolute minimum.

· Reserved items can also be collected at this time.

· Newspapers and magazines won’t be available for the time being.

· Customers are asked to use self-service machines to borrow or return items where possible or download the new Spydus Mobile app to check out books by mobile phone.

· Our toilet facilities will remain closed to the public for the time being.

Government guidance on Test and Trace

· New Government guidance has been produced to help organisations in certain sectors collect details and maintain records of staff, customers and visitors on their premises, from Saturday 4 July onwards, to support NHS Test and Trace.

· We have been asked to keep a temporary record of our visitors for 21 days to help NHS Test and Trace to help identify people who may have been in contact with the virus and help minimise the onward spread of COVID-19. This could help contain clusters or outbreaks.

Share this post