CITY OF NEW BRAUNFELS: Library Launches Homebound Services through RIOrover

By Press release submission

Aug 5, 2020

City of New Braunfels issued the following announcement on Aug. 3.

If you can’t come to the library, the library will come to you!

The New Braunfels Public Library is launching a Homebound Services program for library patrons unable to make it to the library due to age, medical concerns, disability, or lack of transportation, beginning Aug. 3.

Affectionately named the RIOrover, the transit van was purchased with funds raised earlier this year by the New Braunfels Public Library Foundation with the express intent of enabling the doorstep delivery of library materials.

“Our homebound community members are limited in their ability to access services that others enjoy regularly,” said Outreach Librarian Jonathan Margheim, who also runs the RIOmobile, the library’s bookmobile. “But we don’t want that to be the case with library services. Our mission is to provide the community with equal access to environments that support and encourage lifelong learning and enrichment, and with the RIOrover we can now more actively support part of the community that was harder to reach in the past.”

To be eligible for Homebound Services, a person must live in the library’s service area (which includes the New Braunfels city limits, the extraterritorial jurisdiction, or having a New Braunfels mailing address) and possess, or be eligible for, a valid NBPL library card.

Those interested in signing up for Homebound Services can access the registration form from the library’s website, www.nbtexas.org/library. Registered patrons will be assigned to a delivery route based on their residence and will receive library materials on a scheduled basis. The delivery and return of library materials will be contactless, with items being dropped off and returned by placing them at the front door.

Registered patrons will be able to request library materials by placing holds on items online, via the library’s online book bundle request, a printed request form, or via email. Borrowed items can be returned when new items are delivered.

For more information about Homebound Services, or other outreach services at the New Braunfels Public Library, visit newbraunfels.libguides.com/RIO or call 830-221-4300.

Original source can be found here.