Want to take work or school outside but lack a wireless option? The Greenville County Library System is now offering public WiFi outdoors.

All libraries already offer free wireless connections indoors but well, we can’t use those right now much because of COVID. So they are extending that public WiFi connection coverage in all parking areas of every library branch in Greenville County and the lawn in front of the Hughes Main Library on Heritage Green (picnic plus virtual learning anyone?).

“Given the ever increasing dependency on the Internet for the provision of health care, learning outside the classroom, communication, entertainment, and access to government services, the Greenville County Library System is pleased to be able to provide this connectivity option at all our facilities,” said Beverly James, Greenville County Library System Executive Director.

You don’t need a library card to access the free public WiFi outdoors, which will be available daily from 6 am to 9 pm. To connect to the network, select “gclswireless”.

Only the Hughes Main Library is open to the public. All other branches offer curbside pickup for books, movies, and other library offerings.

The library offers a ton of fantastic resources online all for free, which you can learn about here. As of right now, the library has not indicated when all branches will re-open.

Everyone seemingly wants to know when the Greenville Library is opening back up. Bottom line: they are working on it.

The library system has a lot to consider when they think about how to open up safely for patrons. We miss the library just as much as you do and can’t wait for it to open back up so we can get some new books, movies, and all the good stuff that our libraries offer.

Beverly James, the executive director of the Greenville County Library System, told the Greenville News that as “part of its plan for reopening, system officials are discussing additional precautions for accepting safely returned materials as well as a possible curbside service for the pickup of requested items.”

The library extended the due dates for all materials currently checked out when they closed in mid-March so you don’t need to worry about overdue fines.

But we need to wait patiently for in-person service or curbside pickup. In the meantime, the Greenville Library offers some amazing digital options, which you can learn about here. They have free ebooks, movies, documentaries, TV series, comics, and all kinds of other things. You just need to have a library card to access it, which you can get for free online if you’re 18 years or older.

We’ll update this post as soon as we know more from the Greenville Library.

What are you most looking forward to doing at the library once it reopens?