Troy library overwhelmed by 8,000 book returns within just two days

(FOX 2) - Many people stuck at home in recent months passed the time by reading.

The Troy library, for example, had thousands checked out before the had to shut down in March - and now they've all come back in bulk, and the library is scrambling to get them sorted and back on the shelves.Publish

Troy library overwhelmed by thousands of book returns

Staff at the Troy library are scrambling to get the recent book returns sorted and back on the shelves.

"There are currently 40,000 items checked out of the Troy Public Library, so when we opened the drop boxes we got around 8,000 of them back," said Cathy Russ, the Troy Public Library director. 

All of those items were returned in a 48-hour period last week and because of the virus, the materials have to be quarantined for 72 hours. After the 72 hours, the books will be processed and go back on the shelves

"I don't want people to worry that their materials will be damaged or that they'll be held responsible for any damage. We've never had any damaged materials as a result of the return in the walk-up dropbox," Russ said.

The return dropbox is open every Saturday through Monday.

"We can only accept materials during a certain segment of time. If we accepted them continuously we would never know when they came back. So there has to be a cut off so we can start that 72-hour clock for the quarantine," she said. 

And something you never hear when it comes to library books - no late fees.

"I can't recall ever in my 20-year career as a library director, ever telling someone they could not return materials," she said. "But at the end of the day, my main goal is to keep the public and the staff safe."

The library hopes to open back up sometime next month.