Crestview library: eclipse day fines forgiven, glasses not available

CRESTVIEW — Solar eclipse glasses are no longer available at the Crestview Public Library.

Library Administrative Assistant Jean McCarthy said the line of people who wanted to get the free glasses went around the building every day since they started giving them away Friday.

"We have had probably about triple the amount of people than we had glasses to give away every day since Friday.

And now our phones are ringing off the hook. We've missed probably 200 and something calls, and this is just this morning," McCarthy said Aug. 21, the day of the eclipse.

Because they are getting more phone calls than they have staff to answer them, a pre-recorded message has been placed on the phone lines.

"We are out of glasses and if somebody is trying to call for other library business, such as renewing books, we are forgiving fines today if they can't get through to renew," McCarthy said.

While the library is not officially doing any activities in honor of the event, they have a television monitor with live streaming of The Weather Channel's coverage, and a display and more information on the stands about the eclipse.

The eclipse starts at 12:04 p.m., with max coverage at 1:36 p.m. and it's expected to complete at 3:02 p.m., according to the library's charts, McCarthy said.

Want to construct a pinhole viewer for the event? Visit http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/total-solar-eclipse-2017-make-pinhole-projector-cereal/story?id=49295289.

Construct a pinhole viewer using a cereal box

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview library: eclipse day fines forgiven, glasses not available