By Anthony Stanford –
Check this out. Did you know that Aurora Public Library (APL) customers can check out items that are not books, movies, or music? That’s right, APL lends a variety of technology gadgets to its customers. The items are available for checkout at all APL locations, including the bookmobile.
Libraries have expanded beyond books for quite some time. The effort is due, in part, to understanding that customers aren’t just looking for a place to study or check out books.
Sharing information about the technology items available for checkout, APL digital services manager Himanshu Trivedi said, “Your Aurora Public Library provides access to lots of cool gadgets and you can borrow these gadgets with your library card at any APL location, as well as on the bookmobile. Some of the popular gadgets are Chromebooks, hotspots that provide instant internet access for multiple devices, portable digital video recorders, portable hard drives, audio cassette converters, digital camera equipment, and more. These cool devices can be checked out for one week and can be renewed for an additional week if no one else is waiting.”
Special library collections are the result of libraries listening to their customers in order to ascertain and meet their needs. In the continuing effort to give customers what they want, a survey recently was conducted by APL staff members, with input from customers at all APL locations related to providing additional non-traditional items for checkout.
APL’s collection services manager Colleen Seisser said, “A team of staff members surveyed our community through the month of June to gauge interest for special collections in the library. Special collections are non-traditional library materials such as bakeware, fine art supplies, or musical instruments that can be checked out at the library.
“The survey was available to the library community both online and in person at all of our locations, including the Bookmobile, and it was available in English and Spanish. Staff (members) are reviewing the information we collected from the survey to determine what special collections are most needed at APL.
“One exciting piece of information that we have already discovered is that more than half of the library customers who took the survey are interested in the library offering non-traditional library materials for checkout.”
Anthony Stanford is an author and Aurora Public Library Media Consultant.