City of Pullman

Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher, said “Change is the only constant in life.”  With this truism in mind, Neill Public Library has a few updates to share.

The first is, pursuant to Washington State Proclamation 20-25.19, masks inside the library are optional for patrons and staff.  We look forward to serving you, however you choose to visit.  Neill Public Library will continue to monitor local health conditions and respond as necessary.

And, on May 1, the library will resume charging fines for overdue items.  After one day of grace fines will accrue at the rate of .25 cents/day, per item, to a maximum of $6/item.  This change is in alignment with the City of Pullman’s resumption of utility fee collection in February, prompted by the State of Washington’s expiration of its utility moratorium. Revenue from library overdue fines helps replenish the City of Pullman’s General Fund, which is the funding source for the library’s operating budget.

This is not fun news to deliver, and I acknowledge this second change will affect patrons in different ways.  To minimize this impact, Neill Public Library is pleased to offer conveniences to assist borrowers to more easily keep track of their activity.

• Automatic renewals:  eligible items will now automatically renew in advance of their due date. Renewals are granted for a full new loan period, so there is no loss of time.  Patrons will receive a notice confirming which titles were renewed and which ones were not.  Items requested by other patrons or items that have already been renewed twice are not eligible for additional renewal.

• Text notices:  patrons can receive library notifications by text.  To enable this feature, log into “My Account” from the online catalog page and scroll to the bottom of the “Personal Information” tab and click on “SMS Notifications.” If there is a cell phone on record with the library, just click on that phone number and select the messages to receive. These notifications will be sent by text instead of email or regular post.  Click “Add SMS Notification” to add a new phone number to the account.

Neill Public Library has another patron-friendly convenience —this one by popular request.  Patrons now have the option to save a running list of borrowed items by turning on their checkout history!  This can be especially useful when working through a long series of books or movies.