Keeping Up the Hours and Days

I cannot recall the exact hours that the Pleasant Valley Free Library was open when I first became a volunteer in 1995, but I know that they were considerably fewer than they are today--even though we closed at 9:00 p.m. that year.  That last half hour was always lonely.  When we began to increase our hours in 2000 after our present Library Director Daniela Pulice arrived, we dropped the last half-hour of the day and started added more morning and Saturday hours. Today our Library is open 10.5 hours each on Monday through Thursday, 5 hours on Friday (which gives the Library staff some time for paperwork), and 6 on Saturday for a total of 53 hours a week, more than almost every other library in the Mid-Hudson region.  It is one of the reasons that our circulation is very high for the population served (136,075 items circulated in 2008, more than double the circulation in 2000 when Daniela joined the Library). 

The hours our Library is open are on my mind today because of a report that our neighbor, the Millbrook Free Library, has been forced to close completely on Fridays. Previously the Millbrook library had been open for 6 hours each on Monday and Friday, and 8 hours each on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, for a total of 44 hours a week, now reduced to 38.  

Millbrook Library was forced to close Fridays to keep their budget in balance.  Their total budget for 2009 is $381,572 for 2009, down from $402,272 in 2008.  The budget is down in part because of the overall collapse of the American economy. Unlike the Pleasant Valley Free Library, which is supported primarily by taxes voted for by local residents, the Millbrook Free Library relies on donations and income from its endowment for primary financing, with only 25% of its budget paid for by taxes. (The 2009 budget for the Pleasant Valley Free Library is $295,950, of which 92.5% comes from local, county, and state taxes.) Savings by closing on Fridays primarily comes from reducing staff hours.