Kent County Council have revelaed when the county's libraries will begin re-opening, following months of being closed.

The Covid-19 lockdown forced the closure of all libraries on March 16, but 12 will be welcoming readers from Monday, July 13.

A new ‘Select and Collect’ service will temporarily replace bookshelf browsing, and free PC and WiFi use will be available but must be booked in advance.

The sites re-opening on July 13 are:

• Sevenoaks Kaleidoscope
• Dartford Library
• Sittingbourne Library

• Herne Bay Library
• Gravesend Library
• Broadstairs Library
• Southborough Library
• Deal Library

• Ashford Gateway Plus
• Tonbridge Library
• Kent History & Library Centre, Maidstone

• Folkestone Library

The 'Select and Collect' service will be starting on Tuesday, July 7 when users can order books.

An alloted time slot will then be given to collect the titles from the following Monday.

James Pearson, KCC’s Head of Libraries, Registration and Archives, said: “Our priority is to make Kent’s libraries as safe as possible, so not all of our services will be available initially.

“Our Select and Collect service will provide a book-borrowing service where orders can be made both online and over the phone, allowing customers to pick their items up from one of the 12 libraries at an agreed date and time.

"Crucially, the Select and Collect service will avoid the need for physical bookshelf browsing - keeping our customers and staff as safe as possible.”

From July 13, pre-bookable PC and WiFi usage, will be available in each of the 12 libraries from 10am to 4pm, Monday to Saturday.

Mr Pearson added: “We know many of our customers have lots of books and other items that they borrowed before the lockdown.

"We can reassure everyone that there will be no overdue charges for any items for this period and we are renewing all items taken out before lockdown until December 31.”

Customers will be able to return borrowed items to any of the 12 libraries via a drop box or a return bin outside each from Tuesday.

KCC has already restarted its Home Library Service deliveries, along with its postal loan service to the blind and partially sighted and expects to restart the mobile library service in late July.

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