PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Starting this weekend, the Free Library of Philadelphia will begin its first wave of consistent Saturday openings since the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to reduce hours of operation.
The six-day schedule returns to nine city libraries on Nov. 18, with a 10th branch beginning on Dec. 2.
“This is the first time we’re going to have consistent Saturday service in many years,” said Darren Cottman, the library’s deputy director of operations. He says many have asked about the return of weekend openings.
“People said, ‘Oh, when are we gonna have Saturdays?’ That's one of the first things they started asking about.”
A handful of locations started opening again on Saturdays during parts of 2023. Now, however, Mayor Jim Kenney and City Council have allocated $37 million to the library system over five years. “We hired over 300 staff members to support our operations,” Cottman said. “We've had a lot of people just trying to make sure that we were able to hire staff to support these services.”
Trenton Smiley, the library’s deputy director of communications and engagement says he’s excited for the libraries to be more accessible, “providing that Saturday does remove the barrier for folks who can't get in to us during the week.”
He also says the Free Library isn’t stopping with 10 branches. “We'll just keep continuing to add libraries as we move through the first of the year,” said Smiley. The complete list of branches with six-day service is available on the library’s website. More branches will join the initial 10 locations in waves.