Beginning January 1, 2022, our Saturday hours are changing to 10 am – 2 pm from 9 am – 3 pm. We will return to 9 – 3 hours once the Farmers’ Market resumes in late Spring. What’s the reason behind this change, you ask? Oh, I think I could get 350 words out of this…
In the summer of 2019, we made the decision to extend our Saturday hours for many valid reasons. Initially, this change from our previous hours of 10 am – 1 pm was to correspond with the Farmers’ Market, which runs from 9 am – 1 pm. Opening an hour earlier than we were gave vendors and patrons access to our bathrooms instead of having to rely solely on the port-a-potty in the parking lot, and extending them after the market ended meant folks didn’t have to choose between the market and visiting the library, we could hold programs after the market without competing with it, and it would give working people that much more time to visit our library!
As with any change, the plan was to evaluate activity during these extra hours, and if sufficient data supported extending further or cutting back again, then we would adjust accordingly. As you can imagine, our plan to evaluate these hours went belly up, as did most other plans, in about March of 2020. At this point, we have seen a decrease in pretty much every measurable statistic during these extra hours, but also during regular hours, all week long. So how does one evaluate responses to change when everything has changed? You don’t! I mean you can, but that HUGE VARIABLE OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC makes it all but unnecessary.
Now, as we’re approaching the 2nd winter of this pandemic, the extra hours aren’t utilized in the way we originally intended. After discussing it at length with staff members and Trustees, we have decided to cut hours back to 10 am – 2 pm on Saturdays, still giving patrons an extra hour from the original schedule from two years ago. Saturday is still our slowest day, but who knows what will happen once this pandemic ends. My guess? Y’all are gonna want to kick down our doors to hang out in here 24/7. But I’m an optimist.
Do you like the idea of cutting back Saturday hours outside of summertime? Do you NOT like the idea of cutting back Saturday hours outside of summertime? My contact information is below, and I always love hearing from you. Thanks for reading!
Connect with/complain to Travis Olivera at the Hamilton Public Library by phone at (315) 824-3060 or by email at tolivera@midyork.org, or in person at the library.
