BILLINGS — Billings Heights residents will soon have much greater access to the Billings Public Library.
A new express locker will be put outside the SCL Health Heights Clinic, allowing library users to reserve materials online and pick them up 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Users will also be able to return items to the locker. It's the second in the state, after the first was put right outside the downtown library in January.
The exact opening date hasn't been announced yet, but Katherine Jore can't wait.
"Oh my goodness, absolutely," when asked if she would use the new locker. "It’s closer to my husband’s work even so he can stop and grab stuff for us on the way home."
Jore and her family make weekly trips to the library all the way from Huntley. The downtown lockers have already made a huge difference.
"I really like that I’m able to stop by and pick up my books even if it's not library hours," she said. "Like if I have to work late, or I'm running errands early in the morning."
"It’s helped close to 4,000 people," Billings Library Foundation Director Leslie Modrow said.
That’s in just over nine months. So Modrow knows a new location will make a difference.
"The most important thing a library does is provide access to information," she said, "and being able to provide access further beyond these walls makes our community even stronger.”
And don’t worry non-Heights folks - there’s another one on the way, that could use your help.
"We're down to the last $9,000 on the 3rd one," Modrow said.
The library isn’t quite ready to announce the exact location of the third one, so you’ll just have to stay tuned.
