Library branches to expand hours

A promise is a promise.

Because the public did its part by passing the library’s levy in November, The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County will follow suit by expanding its hours of service, starting sometime in April.

“We are pleased to be able to expand hours of service. We know that having our libraries open and accessible is so important to our patrons and our community,” said Library Director Carlton Sears.

The Austintown, Canfield, Boardman libraries will add Friday hours from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. after the changes take effect. It will also be open Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Sunday hours will not be changed at this time, as they run between September and May. They will be reviewed for the coming fall schedule.

The Poland library will add Monday hours from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. after the changes take effect. It will also be open Tuesday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday hours will remain 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. through Memorial Day.

The process of arriving at a schedule of hours included making sure the library had the staff in place to cover additional hours.

During the months when the library was losing state funds at an alarming rate, hours were cut on two occasions — May and September of 2009.

Additionally, 30 staff members were lost due to budget cuts. This left the library system short-staffed for an expansion of hours.

“We will announce a starting date in April as soon as possible,” Sears said. “As part of preparing for this expansion of hours, we are adding and training staff and this is still in progress.”

Hours will be expanded by 17.5 percent, with 109 hours of service being added weekly. This will bring the total number of hours libraries are open system-wide to 787.