According to this spreadsheet I’m looking at right now, Ashland had 191,821 visits during the 2025 fiscal year.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the 11-space parking lot is too small for this amount of library traffic. Because of this, whenever JCLS does a strategic plan and Ashland patrons are asked what they’d like to see in their library, they all shout: “a bigger parking lot,” to the exclusion of literally everything else.
The challenge I face as a branch manager is that there is no place to put this desired larger parking lot. During our current strategic planning cycle, it was, once again, the top issue for Ashland library customers. The ONLY branch-specific strategy from the plan I was assigned was “explore options with the community for improved parking at the Ashland branch.” I decided to reframe that tactic so I could provide a realistic response to the good citizens of Ashland who just want a reasonably close parking spot when they come to use the library.
What if, I thought, we made the library more accessible to patrons who need to drive to the library? What would that look like? What if we could give patrons a way to access at least the basic check in/check out dynamics of the library, offsite, in a place where there was more parking.
Maybe in a place that would be more accessible to South Ashland and the roughly 5,000 people who live in the Ashland service area (the entire 97520 ZIP Code) but don’t live in Ashland proper. Maybe in a place where the people who come from outside Ashland go to shop (near the South Ashland I-5 exit)? Maybe at a beloved community organization with parking and a similar mission to the library?
Maybe at the Ashland YMCA?
Thus began the Ashland Book Locker Project. We were so excited that the Y agreed to be a location and was willing to partner with us.
Late last year, thanks to funding from the Friends of the Ashland Library, a book locker was installed outside the Ashland YMCA. There was immediate interest and multiple requests for a book drop (which had always been a part of the plan but was delayed for REASONS.) Fast forward to July when we finally got to do a ribbon cutting with both YMCA and JCLS leadership present. Now a full circulation service is available to anyone who wishes to access it right outside the Y, where there is plenty of parking.
If you want to know more about how to use the service, or how it works, please take a look at the book lockers page on the website. For a broader discussion of the origin story of book lockers at JCLS, check out Ryan’s recent post, Open Sesame!
The results so far have been promising! Every month more people use the lockers, and those people are using them multiple times a month, and for multiple items. In August, 75 different patrons checked out 344 items. That’s an average of 4.5 items per patron. We expect those numbers to continue to grow as patrons discover the ease and convenience of the service.
We WANT people to want to come into our buildings. This is not an alternative. It is, however, a way for people who legitimately just want to pick up materials they order online quickly, without needing to worry about where they will park their car. AND if the people who find the locker useful aren’t parking at the library, that frees up more parking for people who want that full library experience! Voila!