“Staff will be working harder, but in the last month, it’s been very gratifying to know how dedicated people are to public service,” Cleary said.
Morning hours took the biggest hit, since they typically see the least amount of visitors, according to a yearlong analysis of attendance at each library.
Still, some hours were reassigned to evening blocks to accommodate increased demand, Cleary said.
“I’m very hopeful, with these new hours, the impact won’t be a lot, but it’s really too early to tell,” she said.
There were indications at several branch libraries on Thursday that they would not, as library users greeted news of the reduced morning hours with ambivalence.
Even at the Grandview Branch Library, which will lose nearly all of its morning hours, the reductions were scarcely acknowledged.
Directly across the street, some parents waiting for their children at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School shrugged off the cuts since demand is mostly for afternoons.
Heaviest use of the Grandview branch is in the afternoon due to patterns groomed during the regular academic year, children’s librarian Edgar Bullington said Thursday as groups of girls streamed into the library to check out the latest teen magazines.
“It’s a very interesting pattern,” Bullington said.
Downtown’s Central Library, with about 2,000 visitors a day, will see the least amount of hourly cuts, with a closing time of 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, instead of 9 p.m.
The new storefront library in Adams Square, due to open Saturday, was originally scheduled to be open six days a week, but will now be open just five.
Saturday hours at all libraries except Grandview will be maintained under the new plan.
