Penny Kerfien, Director of the Fulton Public Library, and Marian Stanton, President of the Library’s Board of Trustees, announced today that the library will expand its hours of service to the community effective January 2. The library will be open Monday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours until 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. At the same time, the library will also close the David E. Vayner Branch at the Catholic Charities building on West First Street.
“By making these changes, we feel the library will better serve all the residents of the City of Fulton,” said Stanton. “Our patrons told us they really want to be able to access the library personally on evenings and all day Saturday, so this change will answer that need. And we just don’t have the resources to operate both facilities.”
Kerfien also noted, “We plan more outreach to seniors at both Towpath Towers and the Mill Apartments in the new year, and the children’s department will gain four computers to supplement those already available for homework and other after-school uses.”
Stanton said the trustees have worked to provide more adult programs, including one to boost computer literacy among seniors. “We plan the first of several in-house classes which will meet twice a week for three weeks in the morning to enable seniors and others who haven’t taken the plunge into computing to jump aboard.” Stanton said. “We also hope to begin by March showing current films on Saturday afternoons,” she said.
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Earlier this year I commented on this very same idea gave them a lay out of almost this exact schedule I wonder how much money could have been saved be making this change earlier. I wish we could get out of the mindset that this is the way we have all ways done things and get to the mindset that this is a better way to do things and just make the changes. I cannot wait until the next school budget vote to see how much money they want to keep services going. I am not against the Library in fact I think with their limited resources they do a great job and the building is a crown jewel in what was once a very pretty landscape. But far too often instead of accepting someone’s idea we try to keep trolling along the same old way we have for years and then scream for help when we run aground. Times have changed and our thinking must change or the villages, cities, towns and counties will all be bankrupt then where will we be.
December 22, 2009 at 8:08 am
Perhaps we could have the Library open Friday, Saturday, Monday and Wednesday from 9:30am to 7:30pm this totals 40 hours. This would also allow everyone a chance to use the Library and they could even turn the lights off and reduce the heat on Tuesdays and Thursdays when the Library is closed reducing costs even more. Additionally they could have the extension site open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 3 to 6 totaling 12 hours and would better access. Few people work the traditional 9 to 5 work week any more.
This was inevitable given the lack of funding available to successfully run two library sites. Still, it’s difficult to drop something we worked so hard to develop more than ten years ago. I’m sure people will appreciate the added hours open at the main library; however, those could be cut again, I’m sure, if funding doesn’t improve.
Congrats to the library board and director for making this tough decision.