Chicago libraries cutting back weekday hours

Chicago’s 76 branch public libraries will cut back their weekday hours, effective Jan. 2, to minimize the impact of recent layoffs that have books stacking up across the city.

“Our staff is exhausted because they have been stretched really thin over the past few years keeping the hours we have,” said library spokesperson Ruth Lednicer.

“In some locations, we don’t have the level of staffing that we should. This will allow us to offer our patrons a level of service we know they need instead of maybe opening a branch with one librarian.”

The showcase Harold Washington Library and two regional libraries — Woodson and Sulzer — will be unaffected by the changes.

They will remain open seven days a week — Monday-through-Thursday from 9 a.m.-to-9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

But, the Monday-through-Thursday hours at 76 branch libraries will be impacted.

Instead of opening at 9 a.m., some libraries will open at 10 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. Others will open at noon and close at 8 p.m.

The goal is to stagger the days and locations, so that library patrons have somewhere to go between the hours of 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. — even if they have to travel a little farther to get there, Lednicer said.

Earlier this year, Mayor Daley laid off 120 library pages — nearly half the full complement. It happened after their union, AFSCME Council 31, refused to go along with Daley’s demand for furlough days and other cost-cutting concessions.

The impact of those layoffs, along with nearly two years of hiring freezes, has been devastating.

At  some branch libraries, books are literally piling up everywhere. There are simply not enough people to put books back on the shelves. Meanwhile, library usage is surging as people who normally buy books cut back during the prolonged recession.

“Very busy locations are falling behind. Everyone is chipping in to help get books back on the shelves. I have staff in the marketing department who are going out to the branches,” Lednicer said.

Every chance he gets, Daley points with pride to the 53 new or renovated public libraries Chicago has opened during his 20 years in office.

The cutbacks are the first for the library system in more than a decade.

The mayor’s 2007 budget included an increase in funding that allowed the Harold Washington Library to be open four evenings-a-week to accommodate the Loop’s growing student population.