Branch Libraries to Open on Saturdays

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

From the city's web page:

SOMERVILLE - The City of Somerville announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Somerville Municipal Employees Association (SMEA) that clears the way for the City's East and West Branch Libraries to open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The SMEA has already ratified the change and the new hours will go into effect on November 10, 2012. This will mark the first time since the 1970s that the Somerville Public Libraries East and West Branch Libraries have opened their doors on weekends.

Comments

[thekatiegirl.livejournal.com]

That is the best news ever. For those of us who work normal business hours, Monday and Thursday nights were the only times we could use the West branch library. Thank you for sharing!

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

I don't really understand why we have to ask for permission from employees to open our libraries on Saturdays.

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

It's a union situation and probably has to do with contracts.

Also, who's going to actually operate the library on Saturdays? I am a librarian, and working evenings and weekends is extremely common in my profession, but I would certainly hope that my employer would seek employee input for a major hours change that would require people to work on weekends when they previously hadn't.

It's also not cheap to open a library for longer hours, because again, someone has to be there.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Hooray! I have a library again!

[she-of-emeralds.livejournal.com]

Woo-hoo! I love libraries--and I would think that the more hours they are open, the more people that will use them, and then they'll be encouraged to stay open for those extra hours, and that will get them more customers... etc. etc.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

This is such awesome news. I am lucky enough to be able to hit the west branch library at other times, too, but being able to start off a winter saturday by restocking the book-devouring first grader's books *with* the first grader, without advance planning, is very welcome news.