New York City Budget Maintains Six-Day-a-Week Library Service

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city council leaders reached an agreement June 26 on a $59.1-billion budget that will keep the city’s public libraries open six days a week.

Although it appeared during the budget negotiations that library hours might be cut back to five days weekly, the final deal, approved by the full council June 29, leaves the hours intact. The accord was reached after council members agreed to take $129 million from cultural and social programs to pay for schools, the Bloomberg news service reported June 27.

“We’re very pleased we’ll be able to maintain our current level of six-day-a-week service and that the elected officials have recognized our value,” New York Public Library Director of Public Relations Herb Scher told American Libraries. He noted that the libraries in the system were currently open 52 hours a week, a 32% increase over the first half of last year, before the six-day-a-week service was restored for the first time in six years.

Scher said the new budget included a cut to NYPL of 3%.

Posted on July 3, 2008. Discuss.

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