photo by: Bremen Keasey

The new library locker from Lawrence Public Library at Sports Pavilion Lawrence, 100 Rock Chalk Lane. The library expanded its locker program this year, going from 44 total compartments to 165 across three satellite locations in Lawrence.

Looking at a map of the city, Lawrence’s Public Library’s downtown facility is — on paper — convenient. It is close to many city attractions, parks and the some of the most densely populated neighborhoods.

But Brad Allen, the executive director for the library, sees it differently. Zooming out to a birds’ eye view, Allen said he thinks of the city in four quadrants — Northwest, Northeast, Southeast and Southwest — with the library nestled in the northeast section. Sure, if you live close, the library is incredibly convenient. But if you live over in west Lawrence, it can be a 15 minute drive to check out books.

To try to create more convenient access the library has added three new “book lockers” that allow patrons across the city to get a book in their hands faster without needing to make the drive. Those lockers, installed at Sports Pavilion Lawrence, 100 Rock Chalk Lane; Hy-Vee, 3504 Clinton Parkway; and Prairie Park Nature Center, 2730 Harper St., allow library users the option of placing a hold on items and picking them up from one of the remote locations, bringing the library services to other corners of Lawrence.

The lockers were first installed in May, and Allen has said the user feedback has been positive so far. Although there are some kinks and glitches that are being ironed out as part of the program, Allen believes the lockers have been a great solution for expanding the reach of the library.

“Getting people the things they need closer to their homes is part of our strategic plan … We feel when it comes to equity and access, this is a really important thing to do,” Allen said.

Although the expansion of the lockers happened this year, Allen said there was a previous program that started around 10 years ago, where a remote locker was placed at a former Hy-Vee, 4000 W. Sixth St. When that store closed down, Allen said it moved the locker to the Clinton Parkway store, where the option to pick up library holds was very popular. That popularity created a backlog, however.

“It could take five to six days for things to get out there because demand was so high,” Allen said.

The new lockers installed at Hy-Vee and the other two locations are larger than the previous ones, having 55 compartments compared to 44. Combined, the three lockers cost just less than $100,000, Allen said, and the capacity for the program has increased from 44 to 165 lockers.

Ian Stepp, the library’s Circulation Supervisor, said while the Hy-Vee locker location has been the busiest — in part because users were familiar with the program — adding those extra lockers means it is less likely the system gets backed up.

Stepp said for people who want to use the book lockers, they can go to the library’s website to place a hold on the item they want. When they place that hold, they can select whether they plan to pick it up at the library or at one of the locker locations. Items that are on hold for the locker locations get put on designated shelves. Stepp said each day, library staff take those items out to the lockers, delivering them on a route that starts in the morning with the Sports Pavilion locker before looping down to the Hy-Vee location and Prairie Park Center. Stepp said if the items on hold are available, it takes about 24-48 hours to bring them out to the locker.

One difference with the lockers is that hold items expire in three days — sooner than the holds designated for the library which last seven days. Stepp said that is to ensure things don’t get backed up.

When Stepp and the crew go to refill the lockers, they look at a computer system to see how many compartments are available and how many holds are expired so they can take those back to the library. If there are a total of 10 free lockers at a location, Stepp said they’ll bring 10 compartments worth of stuff to that location. Stepp estimates a locker can fit about six 200-300-page books.

To put the books in the locker, Stepp said the staff scan each item one by one. Once they scan a book, one locker will open up, and they’ll place the book for that person in there. They can load in multiple items if someone has placed multiple items on hold. If there is no more space in that locker, then a different locker can open up for that person. Stepp said the staff once loaded three lockers worth of items for one user.

Stepp said if a staff person accidentally loaded a locker with items for two different users, a notice would pop up saying there was an error and they needed to try again. It will make sure they put the items in separate lockers so there are no mistakes.

“It’s a smart little machine,” Stepp said.

And it’s getting smarter. Stepp said the team had worked with the manufacturer, mK Solutions, on tweaks to improve the service. One example of this was alerting library staff if an item no longer had a hold on it. Now, if they scan an item that no longer is being held, it will tell them, freeing up locker space and ensuring the item is available for anyone.

Already, the number of people who are using the lockers has been promising since the expansion of the program. According to library data, in June, about 60,000 items were checked out from the physical library, Stepp said. Over 2,700 more items were checked out from the lockers that month, with 1,700 items checked out at Hy-Vee, 670 from Sports Pavilion and 346 from Prairie Park.

Although Stepp and Allen noted the staff loves to have people come to the downtown location, they understand it can be “a chore” to make that trek for some. Adding the new lockers can make it easier for people to access the library’s services when they want.

“We want to make it convenient … you can pick them up there and return there,” Stepp said.

Allen said survey feedback from people who used the lockers has talked about how they were excited with that convenience. Even though Prairie Park has been so far the least used, Allen said people in southeast Lawrence had written in through surveys saying they are excited because they can walk their dog and pick up their books on hold.

Putting the lockers in places that the public often uses — a grocery store, a rec center and a nearby park — helps people integrate that option into their routine, and Allen thinks it has helped with the quick adoption of those lockers.

“Knowing you can pick something up because you’ll be there two to three days a week, I think we tapped into a sector of folks,” Allen said.

Although the program is still growing in use and awareness, Allen feels it is another tool to help expand the library’s reach — a key focus in recent years. Along with the introduction of “Dottie,” a bookmobile the library introduced in 2022, the library announced in April it was seeking proposals to a develop a comprehensive facilities master plan, in part to see if it was providing equitable access to the community, as the Journal-World reported.

Allen previously noted that many other cities of Lawrence’s size have branch locations, and while he is not “gunning for” adding a new location, it is an idea they hope this plan explores to improve that access. But Allen sees the book locker program as a positive step in making sure all four corners of Lawrence can get a book in their hands at their soonest convenience.

“I feel good about the coverage and excited to see how it goes,” Allen said