Staff members at the Sugar Grove Public Library are looking forward to providing even more contactless service after receiving a grant worth nearly $20,000 that will be used to buy two new self-checkout machines that are regarded as critical for patron privacy and safety.
This month, Sugar Grove Public Library Director Shannon Halikias announced the awarding of a grant to the library from federal American Recovery Plan Act funds, administered through the Illinois State Library, known as the Self-Checks for Safe and Convenient Service grant that will be used “to purchase critical technology necessary for effective library operations.”
Halikias said that self-checkouts “are really essential because they allow patrons privacy” as well as “freeing up staff time so we can handle other services to patrons.”
“Children absolutely love self-checks too and the thing about them now is that they allow patrons to distance and handle their own transactions without necessarily having to interact with a staff member and are really essential to conducting services safely during a pandemic recovery period,” she said.
Self-checkout machines are not new, Halikias said, noting that the “library has been open 12 years and self-checks have been present since the beginning.”
“The machines have probably been around comprehensively about 15 or 20 years in different forms,” she said. “Here, things were really unfortunate as we were getting up to full steam on hours and focusing on fully reopening the building (from the pandemic) when both of our machines died at once.”
Halikias said the 12-year-old machines “were being Band-Aided through, trying to make them last as long as possible.”
“Having just staff do checkouts is definitely a challenge with our limited staff numbers here,” she said. “We did have to move some funds in order to purchase one machine ourselves. We really can’t operate without a least one, and we did have to go through the process of obtaining bids and looking at specifications and deciding what we wanted.”
The grant opportunity came along, Halikias said, and “the technology we needed fit into the criterion for the grant” and included a request for two more self-checkout machines as well as the pads and scanners needed at work stations throughout the facility.
Halikias wrote the grant and said “It was a bright moment when we got the award letter.”
She added this is the second grant the library has received this year, following the announcement in the fall of a Live and Learn Construction Grant worth nearly $86,000 from the state that will be used to remake more than 1,800 square feet at the library into a new flexible, mixed-use area.
The two additional machines will hopefully be delivered and installed by late February or early March, Halikias said, noting that patrons can also elect to work directly with staff when checking out materials.
“Patrons always have the option to use a self-check or visit a staff member. Many patrons just prefer a self-check for privacy and distancing,” she said. “Self-checks are essential for efficient library operations for different factors. Due to our limited staffing, we can’t keep up with our other duties without high-functioning machines. With three machines in place soon, we will be back to normal operations, and have an extra to accommodate increased circulation growth.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
