After Library Director Jessica Cadiente laid out the Santa Barbara Public Library’s precarious financial situation during this year’s budget discussions, telling the City Council that the public libraries were offering great services but operating “on a razor’s edge” since the pandemic and during renovations — with a skeleton staff and limited hours — the city responded by adjusting the budget to allocate more funds to the library to bring it back to its pre-COVID hours and services.
On Thursday, Cadiente announced that after recruiting, hiring, and training new staff, both the Central Library and Eastside Library locations will be expanding hours on evenings and weekends starting October 8.
“We know that the lack of Sunday, Monday, and evenings hours at Central Library was limiting access for many in the community,” Cadiente said. “We’re thrilled to have the support of City Council to extend hours to make it more convenient for families, professionals, and those with less flexible schedules to visit the library in order to access our collections and services or attend educational programs and events.”
On October 4, both locations will close early (at noon) to allow for training of new staff members. The new library hours, starting Sunday, October 8, will be: Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Sundays, noon-5 p.m.
With the expanded hours and with both locations now open seven days a week, the library also announced that it would be updating some of its circulation procedures beginning October 7: Physical items can be on the hold shelf for a maximum of seven days; physical items checked out by visitors will now be eligible for one automatic renewal if no one has reserved the item; after the first renewal, visitors can manually renew the item two more times by logging into their online account or by contacting library staff; and after three renewals, items are due back.
For information, visit sbplibrary.org.