The Saranac Free Library on Main Street opened for curbside service in Septemeber. (Enterprise photo — Amy Scattergood)

Libraries may have closed their doors to the public to safeguard against the pandemic, but the public hasn’t stopped reading. Instead of physical books, many people have turned to electronic books, turning the pages on their screens instead of on paper.

“The number of e-books borrowed by our patrons has doubled from the previous year,” said Peter Benson, director of Saranac Lake Free Library. The library shut down in March, but all of its electronic resources remained available, including e-books and downloadable audiobooks.

The library opened for people to pick up online orders on June 9, but Benson said that the number of e-books hasn’t decreased. The building itself is still closed for browsing, reading and internet use.

The other thing the Saranac Lake library has done since the pandemic is to eliminate fines for overdue books.

“One of the things that librarians talk about is the fear that someone won’t come back into a library because they have fines,” said Benson. “It’s a terrible outcome for a child or young adult, and a poor outcome for adults. Having happy patrons is way more important.”

“We’ve seen a rise in e-books,” echoed Bambi Pedu, the Lake Placid Public Library’s director. “Curbside service has also been really good. We’ve also been doing some virtual story time on Zoom.”

Pedu said her numbers aren’t quite as high as Benson’s — an increase of around one-third rather than double — but still significant.

“It’s across the board,” said Steve Kenworthy, director of the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System in Plattsburgh. “Both e-books and electronic audiobooks have shown very robust increases.” The CEFLS system is a nonprofit federated library system serving 33 libraries and reading centers in those three counties. Established in 1954, it was the first multi-county library system in New York state. It’s now one of 23 public library systems serving the state.

The Lake Placid and Tupper Lake libraries restarted open hours for browsing and pick-up in July, but patrons are still not allowed inside the one in Saranac Lake. The Saranac Lake library will continue to do curbside service even if it does reopen to help keep patrons safe and to reduce anxiety.

So when will it reopen? Most libraries are waiting to see what happens when schools, particularly local public schools, reopen in the coming weeks.

“When we closed down in March, we already had a reopening plan in place,” said Benson. “That plan has gone through six or seven revisions. Right now we’re waiting to see how things go.”

Benson said that if everything goes well with the school reopenings, the Saranac Lake Free Library will open for browsing for a few hours each day, with limited numbers of people and required masks and hand sanitizer.

“It’s going to be incremental,” he said, with the reading room staying closed and no lingering permitted.

In Tupper Lake, the Goff-Nelson Memorial Library decided to reopen to the public on July 6, though with limited hours.

“It’s been working out really well,” said Director Ben Gocker. “The regulars have been really happy.”

Tupper Lake started curbside service in May and has also seen a rise in e-books. It does virtual programming, weekly stories, a Facebook Live kids program, and sing-alongs and crafts online. And though the library has reopened for browsing, it has not opened the study areas or public computers.

“No one’s on the clock; no one has to make an appointment,” said Gocker. “We keep an eye on the number of people,” which they’ll increase after Labor Day. “We’ve circulated over 2,000 items,” he said, averaging 20 people over the course of four hours per day.

The Lake Placid Public Library restarted open hours July 13 for browsing and checkout, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. People can’t come in to use the computers yet, but the librarians will print out anything patrons need on hard copy, according to Pedu.

This summer, she said, the library did a virtual version of its reading program for children, with themed activities and a chance to earn gift certificates for ice cream at Stewart’s if they read a certain number of books. They also did a poster contest for kids in conjunction with the Bookstore Plus, and a Story Walk is coming up at John Brown Farm State Historic Site. Pre-kindergarten story time continues virtually every Friday.

Meanwhile, instead of people being quarantined, it’s the books that are quarantined.

“There’s no actual way to sanitize a book,” said Benson. “The best thing we can do is put it aside for a few days.” The books are put into cardboard boxes for five days if they come into the library from other sources — on inter-library loan, for example — before they’re placed on hold for walk-up patrons.

“Right now I meet with the directors once a week via Zoom,” said Kenworthy. “We support them, we funnel money to them, provide inter-library loans and the forum so they can talk to each other. As far as their policies, we have no control over them at all.”

“There’s a lot of things we do from home,” said Pedu. “You learn a lot of electronic tricks.” And her library will also continue with curbside service. “We actually run books out to the cars,” she said.

Benson said that one important thing is for patrons to keep informed, by checking the library website and Facebook page, and by getting on its email list.

“Our libraries want to open up as much as they can, as soon as they can feel safe,” said Kenworthy. “The whole idea is a balancing act.”

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(Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the Lake Placid Public Library does not yet have open hours. The Enterprise regrets the error.)