Greater Sudbury Public Library sees renewed interest in services during pandemic

As with many aspects of our lives, borrowing books has gone virtual, and so far, the Greater Sudbury Public Library says the shift to online ispaying off.

Jessica Watts, citizen service centre lead with the library, says since the library closed its doors in mid-March due to COVID-19, about 285 people have signed up for library cards.

That's in addition to the85 to 100 per centincrease staff have seen in the use of the library's digital collections that includes e-books, audiobooks and digital magazines.

"There definitely has been an increase in what would be the users that wouldn't normally access the library," Watts said.

With the libraries we have a lot of sort of leisure activities and things that there's no cost.Jessica Watts, Greater Sudbury Public Library

"So we see people that maybe have stepped away from the library for a number of years and have just recently come back, orpeople who have never used the library and are seeing a need to access our digital materials."

While the pandemic has presented challenges, Watts said, it's forced the library to reinvent itself and get creative in delivering its offerings to the community.

She said that's meant engaging with people through social media by way of virtual craft nights, live gardening webinars and online art exhibits.

"A lot of the social media followers are new. We definitely have quite a new following that we didn't have before," she said, "In some ways when we closed, people started thinking about the library in new ways."

Watts said as the pandemic has caused a considerable amount of financial stress for many people, it may be contributing to their regainedinterest in the library.

"You have to pay for Netflix to watch movies,or a lot of services that they're looking to get involved in, there's a cost associated with it," she said.

"But with the libraries we have a lot of sort of leisure activities and things that there's no cost."

Watts also noted that on average, approximately 1,000 people have picked up an average of 4,000 items on a weekly basis from the six librarylocationscurrently offering curbside borrowing services.