The TSU Research Library has begun to deliver books requested by readers to their homes. This service can be used until the end of the remote working regime of the library. Books are issued remotely on a library card, and couriers bring them to the address indicated in the request in Tomsk on Tuesdays and Fridays.
The first delivery took place on May 15: it was a textbook on forestry in the Tomsk Region, an anthology on foreign literature of the 19th century, works by Honore de Balzac and research on his work, and research on the work of Chernyshevsky.
Faculty of Philology students presented the idea of delivering books to their homes during an online meeting with the university rector on April 30. For several days, the staff of the Research Library planned the organization of such a process. They contacted the UniProfi Student Labor Exchange and couriers were found, who now deliver books twice a week.
- The first delivery request came from the student who asked the rector a question about it, and he ordered five books at once. The second delivery of books took place on May 19. The service turned out to be in demand - the number of applications that came to the library increased. This time, requests for 18 books came from nine people. These were Fundamentals of Optics, Neologisms in Russian, Three Treatises on Oratory, Walter Scott's Historical Novel, and other literature necessary for students’ work, - says Andrey Kuzmin, the acting Head of the Service Department, TSU Research Library.
Our couriers who deliver books from the library and back are equipped with personal protective equipment - masks and gloves. Processing books before they are passed on to readers is not required. But after the books are returned to the library, they, like all publications in the pandemic season, are quarantined.
- Quarantine lasts several days, for the potentially present virus to die. The book is carried out in sealed boxes marked with when they were handed over. After quarantine, the books are returned to the shelf - processing by some special means is not required. Such measures are now being taken in the libraries of Russia and the world, - notes Andrey Kuzmin.