Gwinnett County library hours, beginning in March:
Buford/Sugar Hill; Centerville; Collins Hill; Five Forks; Grayson; Hamilton Mill, Lilburn and Peachtree Corners
Monday and Wednesday: 12-8 p.m.
Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 12-5 p.m.
Dacula, Duluth, Lawrenceville, Mountain Park, Norcross, Suwanee, Snellville
Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tuesday and Thursday: 12-8 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 12-5 p.m.
Gwinnett County library branches will soon have longer hours, despite a $1 million cut to the library system’s budget this year.
The library board voted Jan. 14 to restore six hours per week to each of the county’s 15 branches — hours that had been cut in recent years because of reduced county tax revenue.
County funding for libraries has dropped from $18.9 million in 2009 to $15.1 million this year.
The branches have staggered hours of operation, but each closed at 3 p.m. on two days a week. The closing times on those days will change to 6 p.m. at all branches, beginning in March.
Liz Forester, the library system’s deputy director, said it is unclear how much extending the hours will cost. She said it is possible in part because of savings from eliminating benefits for some part-time library employees, losing about 40 staff members to attrition since 2009, and leaving many of those positions unfilled.
“There is a cost to doing this, but we’re not adding any staff,” Forester said. “We’re working with what we have … but we couldn’t stretch it much more.”
The extended hours came as good news to people in the Norcross branch Wednesday. Kevin Adams, of Duluth, said he goes to the library four or five times a week and it’s difficult to keep track of the varying branch hours.
“There would be more people here but we get thrown off by the times,” Adams said. “And when they close at 3 (p.m.), that doesn’t work for me.”
Rebecca Richards of Norcross agreed that the 3 p.m. closings were “of no use” to her and that the longer hours are “great news” because she visits the library every week.
Library board chairman Dick Goodman said he was surprised system managers decided they could afford the expanded hours this year.
At its Jan. 14 meeting, Goodman and the board approved taking the $1 million cut from the library system’s budget for new books, magazines, newspapers and other materials, as was suggested by Gwinnett Commission Chairwoman Charlotte Nash.
“We pulled a rabbit out of a hat … and added 90 hours a week across the system,” Goodman said. “We wanted the staff to be creative, and they have been.”
In all, personnel costs at the library have been reduced about 8 percent since 2009, according to a letter former library board chairman Phillip Saxton wrote to Nash in December, protesting the cuts.
“Our challenge is to increase the hours of usage for our citizens,” Saxton wrote in the letter. “To cut the materials budget … makes (that) challenge … hollow indeed.”
Forester said the library is in the process of a comprehensive review of how it provides services in an attempt to be more efficient.
“This has been a well-funded system,” Forester said. “So these changes have been pretty radical. It’s certainly upsetting to the public when we keep changing hours.”
Nash said she is happy that some hours have been restored, and said the library isn’t unique — most organizations, she said, have struggled through the last few years with fewer employees and stagnant salaries.
“We are doing what we have to do to continue providing an acceptable level of service despite (fewer) resources,” Nash said. “I believe the library board and staff have made the right choice in this case.”
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