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New Normal at Reading Chest

Friday 7th August 2020

How we’ve kept our books safe and useable during lockdown….

There is no doubt this has been an incredibly challenging time for everybody. Now that it feels as though things are starting to move forward from the pandemic and hopefully into a ‘new normal’ we thought we’d let you know how we have kept our service going, how we’ve had to modify the day to day running of Reading Chest, and how we will continue to operate safely.

It was clear from the number of customers contacting us in the early days of lockdown, that we were a much needed resource throughout the pandemic. With almost every child home schooling during lockdown, Reading Chest book rental would become an essential ‘go to’ for families with young readers.
First things first, we had to ensure we had enough books on our shelves so that we could quarantine every book we received from customers for 72 hours - so there was lots of adding new books into stock!
Every day after our delivery of returned books were scanned in, we stored them for an extra day, before they were cleaned and put back into circulation ready to send out to the next customer via first class post. Staff were (and still are!) socially distancing, and many cups of tea and coffee were consumed as our days got busier and busier with more parents discovering Reading Chest.

As we move forward, with schools expecting to open in the coming weeks, let’s hope they can get their libraries running and fill children’s book bags again, and we can continue to be the perfect accompaniment for school reading or home schooling, as we have been for the last 10 years.
However, if schools feel uneasy about lending books, or if the guidelines prevent it, Reading Chest is confident we can continue to provide a Covid safe service to keep children reading at home!

Some love for Reading Chest during lockdown……

“Reading Chest provided great support to the virtual schooling for my son during lockdown as well as continuing his reading over the holidays. I have learnt so much too from all the non-fiction books!
It was such wonderful resource to have during lockdown, well done for keeping it going :-)” – Kirsty S

“Reading Chest have my kept my daughter reading during lockdown – and beyond. A fantastic range of interesting and enjoyable books, as always. We were reassured by the new safety measures you have in place. The service has been amazing – well done!” – Penny S

“I’m so impressed with Reading Chest, it’s been the best thing we did since lockdown, was to sign up and keep my daughter moving forward with her reading and school book bands.” – Elizabeth B