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.

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.

Applications can be picked up at the Syracuse Public Library's circulation desks (upstairs and downstairs), or you can download an application by clicking here.

Homeschooling parents can choose between attending one of two sessions. The first session is from 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday, Aug. 23, and will feature speakers Kathy Balke, Indiana Association of Home Educators Region 2 representative; Anita Buck, early learners reading and math; Rebekah Sceniak, SPL’s homeschool class teacher; Ashley Weaver, presenter of the Joyful Noise Learning YouTube channel; and Deb Cotton, owner of Care Books and More in New Paris.

An evening session will follow from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24. It will feature the same speakers except for Cotton, who will leave information behind for Thursday’s attendees.
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Both sessions will feature a resource table that homeschoolers can explore. These sessions will occur in the downstairs meeting room.