Hours at the Nichols Library on Sundays will be extended starting March 3. This temporary extension will add four more hours, allowing the library to be open from 1 to 9PM.
The increase in hours is a pilot program.“The public has requested expanded hours for many years, and we will run this program for four months to gauge potential use.” said John Spears, Naperville Public Library Executive Director. “Sunday is our busiest day, and in looking at the experience of other libraries, adding evening hours on Sunday has proven very effective in meeting the public’s demand for more services.
The desire to increase hours is a response to patron surveys and the Library’s current schedule falling short of the established standards for Illinois libraries of its size. “Several years ago we shortened Sunday hours due to budget cuts. During budget discussions last fall, City Council asked what it would cost to extend our hours,” Spears said. After study, Library administrators developed a way to conduct an experiment using existing employees from all three Library facilities to staff the extra four hours at Nichols. “We selected March through June in order to test usage during both the school year and the summer.”
Hourly usage statistics will be carefully examined throughout the process. “We’ll see if it meets the public’s needs. If it does we’ll have the information necessary to decide the appropriate staffing levels to make the extended hours permanent,” Spears said. With Board and Council approval, these figures would then be incorporated into the fiscal year 2015 budget, and the longer hours would be fully implemented in May 2014.
