Board urges Friday openings at all Windsor library locations

The Windsor Public Library Board is recommending the city spend $98,000 in the upcoming budget to keep six library branches open on Fridays year-round.

The library wants to establish the hours to maintain consistency.

"We get requests from our customers on an ongoing basis when they roll up to one of our smaller branches, rattle a door on a Friday and it's locked," said Kitty Pope, the CEO of the Windsor Public Library.

Currently, only the Central, Riverside, and Budimir branches are open Fridays throughout the year.

The Bridgeview and Forest Glade locations are closed Fridays from May to September. The board would like those branches open on Fridays all year long, along with the Fountainbleu, Seminole, Chisholm and Sandwich locations.

Councillor Rino Bortolin sits on the library board. He believes opening the branches on Fridays would increase attendance.

"We already have examples that work. We were looking to reduce hours at Forest Glade a couple of years ago and we actually increased the hours on the Saturday and I think another day during the week," he said.

"And what ended up happening, it became really popular and we ended up programming quite a bit, so usage of the library increased quite a bit."

Frequent library user, Mary Dawson goes to the Budimir branch on Fridays but if she had the option, would go to Forest Glade, because it's closer to where she lives.

"I'd love to have the Forest Glade library branch open on Fridays," Dawson said.

CBC spoke to parents at the Optimist Community Centre on Friday who said they wished the Chisholm branch there was open so their children could have something to do while waiting for their siblings who take part in community centre activities.

Dianne Poisson pointed out that school PA days fall on Fridays.

"The library could certainly be used as well," said Poisson.

Pope also explained that many people want to use the computers on Fridays to apply for work.

"We know Fridays are a big day for our customers to traditionally load up with reading and viewing material," said Pope.

The $98,000 would pay for staffing. The expenditure is part of the 3.3 per cent increase in the budget already being recommended by administration.

City council budget deliberations will begin April 1.