Drones now delivering library books to some Montgomery County students

Service began Thursday

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – When you look up in the sky, you might see books flying by at 65 miles per hour.

“We’re really excited to partner with Montgomery County Public Schools," said Wing Marketing and Communications Associate Jacob Demmitt.

According to Demmitt, the school district is the first in the world to make books available to students by drone.

“Students request books through a form that the school put together. After they request, Kelly works with the students to figure out which books to get and she pulls the books off the shelf. She brings them to Wing and then we deliver them directly to the students homes," Demmitt explained.

Librarian Kelly Passek said as of Monday books had already been delivered to 36 families in Christiansburg since deliveries started last Thursday.

“From my point of view, from the school library, it’s gone very smoothly. The requests are coming in, we are able to fill, right now, 100% of all of the requests that we’ve gotten," said Passek.

As of Monday, because Wing is based in Christiansburg, books are only being delivered there.

Delivery could be expanded to other parts of the county if there’s enough demand.

“Free choice reading, reading students choose to do on their own, is extremely important to academic success and then to life success. So anytime we can get books into the hands of our students, that’s a success for us," Passek said.

The students will return the books when the new school year begins.