Mar 16, 2022 2 min read

Peters Township council voted Monday to reduce the local library’s hours by one hour Monday through Thursday, and to stay closed on Sunday.

Monday through Thursday, the Peters Township Public Library will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., rather than 9 p.m. The library will remain open on Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The library had previously been open on Sundays between September and April from noon to 4 p.m.

Library Director Lacey Love requested the reduction at council’s meeting Monday evening.

“For the past six months since the library went back to full hours since the pandemic, we’ve just been collecting hourly data at a request from the staff. Just anecdotally they had seen a couple dead spots throughout the week that didn’t really make a lot of sense to staff with four people,” Love said.

Love said they had been keeping track of how many people come through the doors and how often they are making use of amenities, such as computers.

“Based on that data, we’d like to take one hour off the evenings Monday through Thursday to close at 8 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. and then to eliminate Sundays year-round,” Love told council.

According to the data Love provided to council, only 2.5% of patrons made use of the library between 8 and 9 p.m., and Sundays accounted for 6% of total library traffic.

The reduction in hours is estimated to save the library approximately $14,000 in wages per year.