Seward Park and Chatham Square NYPL Library Branches Extend Hours During ‘High Demand’ Times
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Seward Park Library, Jan. 2015
The New York Public Library just announced sweeping extensions to its operating hours across branches in the Five Boroughs. Effective this week, dozens of branches are now open later, with a “focus on evenings, weekends, and other periods of high demand.”
Here at home, the two local outposts – Seward Park and Chatham Square libraries – saw equal hourly increases from 50 to 54. Both are now open until 8pm on peak days (i.e. Monday through Thursday). Unfortunately, local bookworms won’t have access to these specific facilities on Sundays.
Mulberry Street also saw an increase of four hours to 48.
These extensions are made possible thanks to a $43 million increase in funding to the city’s three library systems in Fiscal Year 2016, which helped restore the significant $65 million library cuts since 2008. As a whole, Manhattan received a total of 133 new public service hours per week.
The added funding in fiscal 2016 also allows the city-run system to hire 100 new librarians, the majority of whom are apparently children and young adults.
“New York Public Library branches offer a wide variety of free resources to strengthen individuals and their communities, including ESOL classes, story times, coding classes, and more,” said NYPL President Tony Marx. “Thanks to a historic investment by Mayor de Blasio, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and the City Council, as well as the hard work of our growing, talented staff, we can grant New Yorkers increased access to these irreplaceable, critically important services.”
Seward Park Library hours: 10am-8pm (M-Th), 10am-5pm (Fri-Sat)
Chatham Square Library hours: 10am-8pm (M-Th), 10am-5pm (Fri-Sat)
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