As reported in the Ottawa Citizen , a drive-thru window is coming to the new Ottawa Public Library in the fall of 2005.
Library management and members of the union are currently in discussions concerning how the service will be manned; management would like a volunteer but the union would like a librarian (but of course!) . The hope is that motorists will be able drop off materials and collect orders they’ve pre-selected on the Internet.
The article states that the $7.7-million South Central District Library on Lorry Greenberg Drive — to begin construction in October and to be completed in September 2005 — has designed into it this Tim Hortonsesque feature (ed: let’s hope they also serve those iced coffees).
“It will look just like a McDonald’s window,” said Baseline Councillor Rick Chiarelli, chairman of the Ottawa Public Library.
Hold the fries – please!
At first blush, I thought this was going to be one of these “there goes the neighborhood” type of articles… Drive-In windows at the library? And that quote by Chairman Chiarelli’s threw me, too. I figured he was criticizing the appearance of the drive-in window by saying it would “look just like MacDonalds” – until I read on.
Councillor Diane Dean’s observation about it “being a boon for shiftworkers who have trouble getting to the library during normal hours.” is one, I’m embarrassed to admit, that hadn’t crossed my mind.
I’ll be interested to read the reactions of experienced librarians to the drive-in window concept. Part of me feels sad at the prospect of all this self-serve stuff because patrons will lose the personal aspect of checking out books from their library…but the potential to “free up” the librarians to do other important things is a positive…however, that comment about
is a scary one! As much as I appreciated the article, I wish Ken Gray hadn’t used the self-serve/food theme quite so much, though I’m sure it was hard to resist after Chiarelli’s comment. It’s just that I kept picturing soft ice cream spilling out of a stainless steel spigot between the stacks.
my community already has something similar
http://www.cityofdenton.com/pages/library.cfm
This library also has a drive through window where you can pick up items and return them. They also have a cafe inside and a community police station. I’ve used it before and it’s great. I think Ottawa citizens (Ottawans? Ottawites?) will be very happy with theirs.