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Norwalk Public Library Expands Its Hours

NORWALK, Conn. -- Cameron Fieffe is changing his library habits. For the rest of the summer the 3-year-old will be visiting on Wednesday evenings, something he couldn't do before.

His mother says she'll take advantage of the Norwalk Public Library newly expanded hours. As of Wednesday, the library is staying open late on Wednesdays in addition to Mondays and Thursdays. "At least one library, between us and South Norwalk, will be open to 8:30 Monday through Thursday," said Vicki Oatis, children's librarian at the main branch. "So people have the opportunity four days a week to come in during the evening."

Chris Bradley, the library's new director, said she accomplished this by adding only two hours to the schedule.

"I started thinking," she said. "We wanted Sunday hours, but this was not the budget year to do that. I said to the staff, 'What do you think, if we went to 8:30 on Wednesday that's still a shift. Instead of coming in noon to 5:30 they can come in from noon to 8:30. Then what we can do for consistency is drop the Monday and Thursday to 8:30 [from 9 p.m.]. Then we've got our library open every night, between us and the branch. It only ended up to be three extra hours, but then by dropping the Monday and Thursday from 9 to 8:30 it's only two extra hours. So we're like, 'Heck, we can do that.' "

This also means that the library's meeting rooms, which are free to Norwalk nonprofits, are available another night. "We were really crunched with just two nights to use the rooms," Bradley said. "And we'd like to have our own programs. so it was hard for people to find free meeting rooms."

The library's hours are:

Monday:

? Main Library, 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

? South Norwalk Branch, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday:

? Main Library, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

? South Norwalk Branch, noon to 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday:

? Main Library, noon to 8:30 p.m.

?  South Norwalk Branch, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Thursday:

? Main Library, 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

? South Norwalk Branch, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Friday:

? Main Library, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

?  South Norwalk Branch, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Saturday:

? Main Library, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

? South Norwalk Branch, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Sunday:

Both libraries closed.

What do you think of this new arrangement. Leave a comment below?

 

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