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The library is offering curbside and delivery service now. Patrons using either service can check out five items.

All returned library materials are quarantined for nine days, so items you would like to have may not be available.

To receive delivery service, call the library and 859-744-5661.  A librarian will take your request. You will also be asked your address and phone number.  Those questions make sure the person calling is authorized to use the account — that protects your card — and also to make sure the delivery librarian brings materials to the correct address.

Deliveries will be left outside your door.

You can set up curbside service by calling the library or by using the online curbside service form.

There is a new tab for curbside service on the far right of the function tabs that run across the top of the library’s website.

Click on that tab, then on the curbside icon. You will see a form to enter your account information and the titles or descriptions of types of materials you would like to have. A librarian will call you when you order is ready. During that phone call you will set up a time to receive your curbside service.

When you come to pick up your materials, call from the parking lot. A librarian will bring a cart out to the walkway leading to the front doors.

Librarians cannot bring your materials to your car and hand them in through the window or assist you in carrying them to your vehicle.

Leave the cart where the librarian left it, and they will come out to retrieve it after you have gone.

This is done for the safety of staff and patrons.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, library staff cannot socialize with patrons.

Every staff member has numerous patrons they count as friends and who they have looked forward to seeing.  At the moment, however, that usual congeniality is not possible.

If a librarian became infected because of interaction with a patron, the library would once again have to be closed for decontamination.

Right now, library staff are not allowed to socialize with patrons and not even with each other during work or after work in the building or in the parking lot.

Throughout the library, clear social distancing marks limit how close staff can be to one another.

Everything possible is being done to keep staff and patrons safe.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Another unfortunate consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the Adult Summer Reading Program is postponed until later in the year.

With all there is to do to keep the library open, it is impossible to safely conduct the program unless it was limited to online participation.  That would unfairly exclude many ASRP participants.

Perhaps this year there will be a fall or winter reading program, one we can celebrate together.

Here’s a piece of good news.  If you liked browsing the new books section of the Library, you can now see titles recently added to the collection by clicking on the “new books” link in the drop down menu of the “books and more” tab.

Scroll through descriptions of books, fiction and nonfiction, and get the call number in case you would like to add them to your curbside or delivery order.

If you have questions about library services, call the library, use the chat function on the homepage and always feel free to contact me at john.clarkbooks@gmail.com.

All of your friends at the library wish you well.

John Maruskin is director of adult services at the Clark County Public Library. He can be reached at john.clarkbooks@gmail.com.