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This is a dilemma familiar to many fast-growing municipalities, and Oakville is no exception. To make matters worse, population growth means traffic snarls, which can make getting to the library branches before closing time difficult for some busy Toronto commuters – something OPL is working to address.

“We completely understand the challenges they are facing,” says Wong. “The question becomes, how can we make it possible for them to make use of the library and its materials while we work on building more branches.”

So, three years ago, Oakville decided to open its first OPL Express location in Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Center (QEP). The OPL Express is built on the backbone of Bibliotheca’s remoteLocker – an easy-to-use, modular library holds locker solution that can be placed anywhere in the community.

Growing demand from a growing community

remoteLocker allows library users to request materials from any library branch and have them delivered to a convenient locker location. The items can then be picked up any time the building is open. QEP is open most days from 6 am to 10 pm, much longer hours than those offered by the nearest library branch.

The QEP Express station was so successful – regularly stocked to capacity within months of installation – that OPL has since added additional towers of 10 lockers each to the existing remoteLocker for more holds storage and opened two additional Express locations. Each location is outfitted with remoteLockers and offers other on-site programming like story time or early literacy computers.

The second location, at Sixteen Mile, a sports complex, was installed just a year before a temporary branch was opened across the car park in the same area. The results have been surprising. Though a branch is nearby, the remoteLocker circulation is outstripping the original QEP location.

“We did a marketing survey in 2018 and discovered that inconvenient hours were one of the two key factors for people not using the library. So, we decided to leave the Express location open at Sixteen Mile, because the complex is open 18 hours a day,” says Wong.

To take maximum advantage of the circulation opportunities at the Sixteen Mile Express location, Oakville is partnering with Bibliotheca to implement new remoteLocker tower designs. One of the new towers features 15 smaller lockers within the same space that traditionally fit 10. Wong says the new tower with increased hold pick-up capacity is a welcome addition.

“Seeing the success of the remoteLocker at QEP, it was a no-brainer to add on the latest tower types Bibliotheca developed,” she says. OPL will also be implementing the new transparent door lockers at the QEP location. The transparent door towers offer a browsable collection for patrons visiting the remoteLocker to pick up their hold items.

“The transparent door lockers are quite large and visible to users of the community centre, and we plan to use them to circulate “lucky day” collections, sets of DVDs as ‘binge boxes’ for a rainy weekend, or a variety of items centred around a theme,’ says Wong. “We’re working through a few challenges within our ILS to bundle multiple materials together that will be checked out when a patron browses and borrows the contents of one locker, but I’m really excited to see how it goes.”

In addition to standard materials, the transparent lockers can also be used to showcase non-traditional lending items like STEAM kits, instruments, or sports kits. Wong says this capability offers libraries a unique educational opportunity: “We think of the people who exclusively use the remoteLockers as gateway users. The lockers offer us a chance to let them know what other programs and services we offer, and to slip in a little marketing. Many of our patrons are very traditional users, and they don’t even know about all of the things we do and lend, so the holds pickup is like a gateway to everything else.”

What’s Next for OPL?

The library’s recent marketing survey revealed a significant opportunity to educate the Oakville citizens about everything the library offers. With the help of outside marketing advice, Wong is taking full advantage of that through email campaigns and rebranding. The library has a new logo and is currently updating the graphic wraps on the remoteLockers to highlight the library’s brand in its locations throughout the community.