Additional Changes Underway For Materials Transit

Syracuse-Turkey Creek Township Public Library is sharing an update from the Indiana State Library about the materials courier service between Hoosier libraries:

A new statewide library courier contract began on June 26. Over these past two months, the Indiana State Library has received feedback on the new service from the entire library community, including everyone from library patrons to directors and deans of academic libraries. 

Unfortunately, the new company was unable to keep up with the volume and complexity of Indiana’s public library routes. While their administration was capable and communicative and some promising progress was made during the two months, the impact on libraries was felt widely. Many deliveries were made in error or not at all, mostly due to staffing and driver issues. For these combined reasons, the Indiana State Library will be pivoting back to the previous courier service to carry out the current contract. NOW Courier will assume ownership of all library materials currently in transit on Sept. 1. They will utilize the week of Sept. 4 to sort materials received, and then begin delivering to library locations the week of Sept. 11.

In an effort to help the new courier start smoothly, resource sharing in state -– including Evergreen Indiana, SRCS and Indiana Share -- will be paused temporarily. Evergreen patrons may still borrow in person from all member libraries and place holds, but interlibrary holds will not be occurring until Sept. 17. Evergreen users will also have full access to the Indiana Digital Library eBooks and audiobooks through Libby and Hoopla.

Timeline

Sept. 1-10

​No deliveries or pickups from Hoosier libraries. Holds will also pause during this time.

Sept. 11

The new courier will resume pickups and deliveries to libraries.

Sept. 17

Evergreen Indiana interlibrary holds will resume.

Syracuse Public Library Patrons

While material holds are paused, already-placed holds will be fulfilled once deliveries resume. You do not have to cancel or resubmit your holds. Since the Syracuse Public Library is an Evergreen Indiana library, our patrons can visit and check out needed materials that are not available at SPL from other Evergreen Indiana libraries, such as Milford, North Webster, Cromwell, Ligonier, to name a few. You can find a full list of Evergreen libraries here.

Staff at SPL can help you place holds at other local Evergreen Indiana libraries. You will just need to pick the materials up from that library. As always, our digital resources -- Libby and Hoopla -- are available and offer access to hundreds of digital e-books, audiobooks, magazines, movies, and TV shows.

​We appreciate your patience during this transition.