General news

Q: I was in the library recently. Should I be worried about a potential exposure?
A: The affected employee was not working directly with patrons during their shift at the Library. The affected employee also wore a mask and gloves for the entirety of their shift. This does not meet the criteria for close contact as defined by the CDC. The Library has not been contacted by the Lake County Department of Health as part of contact tracing efforts. Should the Library be contacted, we will make every effort to provide that information to patrons.

Q: What will the Library be doing to make sure the building is safe?
A: We have hired a company to perform a COVID-specific deep clean of the Library building.

On Tuesday, October 27, the Lake Bluff Public Library became aware of a presumed positive COVID case on staff. Out of an abundance of caution, the Library is temporarily closing the building, effective immediately; all in-building services including Curbside Pickup are suspended effective immediately. Service changes are as follows:

Starting October 13, the pickup point for Curbside Pickup will be inside the Library lobby. Items will be placed on a cart next to the interior Library doors. The building will NOT be open at this time. In order to maintain social distancing, we are asking patrons leave the Library building once they have picked up their Curbside orders.

Apart from this change, all other Curbside Pickup procedures remain in effect. Visit our Curbside Pickup page for more information about this service.

Reopening: Stage 3

As of September 21, the Library will enter Stage 3 of our reopening plan. As always, we are profoundly grateful for your patience and support as we work to safely re-establish library services during these challenging times. While more library services will be available in Stage 3, the full scope of services will continue to be limited. Please read on for more information about our services.

We are pleased to announce that the exterior book drops have officially reopened for returns. We have a drive-up book drop on Oak Avenue and a walkup return bin right by the Library's main entrance. Return bins will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and cooperation as we worked back up to reopening the book drops!

We are delighted to be opening our doors once again, and are profoundly grateful for the patience of the community during these challenging times. Library staff have worked hard throughout the closure of our building to continue providing services and collections virtually. We will begin the process of reopening the building on July 20. Not all services will be immediately available; they will be expanded over time. We will continue to offer virtual programming and curbside pickup in order to maximize access to the Library within the limits of social distancing. Please read on for more information about our services.

We have received some questions about our plans for reopening and we wanted to provide some information about where we are in this process. Please be assured that we are working as quickly as possible with the resources that we have available to us. We understand that the last couple of months have been frustrating for everyone and we appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to implement library services in a COVID-19 environment. Here are some answers to commonly asked questions:

Right now, we are accepting returns on a limited basis due to the high volume of materials that are currently checked out. Here is what you need to know:

Curbside Pickup is sponsored by the Friends of the Lake Bluff Public Library.

What is Curbside Pickup and how doesit work?
In short: you put items on hold, we’ll contact you to schedule an appointment, and you’ll pick up your items at a designated pickup point outside the Library. More detailed instructions can be found on our Curbside Pickup page.

I have items checked out from before you closed—can I return them?
We are accepting returns on a limited basis. Take a look at our returns announcement for more information.

This isn’t exactly the way we envisioned making this announcement when our Board approved this exciting policy change a few months ago, but effective June 15, the Lake Bluff Public Library will be implementing autorenewal. This means that going forward, the system will automatically renew any eligible items before they become overdue. If an item can’t be renewed—if there’s a hold, if you’ve renewed it 3 times already, or if it’s a special loan like a Trending Title or ILL—the system will send you an alert. We hope that this change will make using the Library even easier and more convenient for you!