Placer County Library, Rocklin branch
As a young teacher, absolutely unable to afford anything but Bay Area rents, the library was my bookstore. I had my card number memorized from the repetitive action of inputting it into the holds system.
In that, I was privileged. My work day ended at 3:30 P.M. I had time before the library closed to visit and leisurely peruse the stacks in the same way I had lingered over them as a child.
Library literature has much to say about keeping up with the times, but the biggest issue facing libraries in California is old-fashioned: They are not open when people need to use them.
Of the seven Placer County libraries, none is open before 10 A.M. or after 6 P.M. None are open on Sunday or Monday (Placer County Library, 2024b). We do not have a city library, but the next town over has three. Of those, one branch is open until 7 one night a week. The others are, at best, 9 to 6, and all are closed on Sunday (City of Roseville, 2024.)
Starbucks is open when people can visit. Be like Starbucks.
Google maps says that the standard weekday commute for the 22 miles from the Sacramento Capitol building to the county library is anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes on a good day (Google Maps, 2024). If those who work bank hours want to visit the library, they need to add it to their Saturday chores. No wonder they choose Amazon. When Starbucks is closed? When the gym is closed? (Hint: Just long enough to clean and start again.) If, as Panos Mourdoukoutas (2018) suggested, “third places” like Starbucks have replaced libraries, it is because in most urban or suburban areas, there is bound to be a Starbucks open from 5:00 A.M. until 9:00 P.M., probably within walking distance.
When Mourdoukoutas posited that “Amazon should replace local libraries to save taxpayers’ money,” and the world collectively hissed in response, the argument was that the poor and working classes utilize library books, computers, and story times, but either we only mean the unemployed, or we only mean people working second and third shifts. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (2019), that accounts for 16% of the population. Even the county Adult Book Clubs and ESL Clubs meet in the middle of the weekday, indicating that they focus their attention on the same populations (Placer County Library, 2024a). Work from home has certainly helped, but the vast majority of the country has incredibly limited access, either because they are working or because their working parent has to drive them there.
If we want libraries to be central to people’s lives, to increase patronage, and to be the new community center, then we need to be available when the people are able to attend. I am not quite advocating for Devarai and Devarai’s (1997) Round-the-Clock Librarianship — though, I would imagine that an on-site librarian job that provided housing would have thousands of applicants — I just want to give the American workers who are busy during first shift their shot at a free education. If the funds will not stretch to a 24/7 open space — without the arbitrary closing times described by Wallin (Zulkey, 2019), then perhaps it is time for all libraries to adopt bibliotheca’s Open+ system for the daytime library hours (aka the book people) so that the library can be open all evening for the community part of the equation (Bibliotheca, 2024). Maybe one location is open all day and another all afternoon. Perhaps the evening activities need to be run, not by librarians, but by the Parks and Recreation division; in that vision, the library simply becomes the place where it happens, not the focus of the activity.
Don’t leave out the working adults when planning library programming.
The library needs to reinstate itself as a recreational space for all demographics, the one place where people can go and not be expected to spend money, not have to “move along” within a nebulous time frame (TomatoFruitBat, 2023). We should strive for people to see the library not as a book repository, but the place where their community – whatever that may be — gathers (Mattern, 2014). Think what could be accomplished with all those extra hours – entire days of community programming designed to attract everyone, not just the limited few. In order to accomplish that, the assumption has to be that it will be open and available when people are making plans to be there. We need to stop being afraid of what people might do to our precious spaces (A_Monster_Named_John, 2022) and instead be excited about what they might accomplish (Holmquist, 2016).
References
Bibliotheca. (2024). Extended access: Increase open hours and improve service. https://www.bibliotheca.com/solutions/extended-access/
City of Roseville. (2024). Locations & Hours. Roseville Public Library. Retrieved 14 February 2024, from https://www.roseville.ca.us/government/departments/library/about_us/locations_n_hours
Devarai, R. & Devarai, K. (1997). Extended library hours. Indian Journal of Information, Library and Society, 10, 3-4. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/28802973_Extended_Library_Hours?_tp=eyJjb250ZXh0Ijp7ImZpcnN0UGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIiwicGFnZSI6InB1YmxpY2F0aW9uIn19#read
Google Maps. (2024). Directions. https://maps.app.goo.gl/pdFysdpnaEPmRxWa9
Holmquist, J. (2016, April 6). Open libraries: Self-service libraries – the Danish way. https://janholmquist.net/2016/04/06/open-libraries-self-service-libraries-the-danish-way/
Mattern, S. (2014, June). Library as infrastructure. Places Journal. https://placesjournal.org/article/library-as-infrastructure/
A_Monster_Named_John. (2022). If this is actually the reasoning, then it’s a good thing for an initiative like this to fail. Left in [Online forum post]. Reddit. Retrieved 9 February 2024, from https://www.reddit.com/r/Libraries/comments/s5fst7/comment/hsynqgz/
Mourdoukoutas, Panos. (2018, July 21). Amazon should replace local libraries to save taxpayers money. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2018/07/21/amazon-should-replacelocal-libraries-to-save-taxpayers-money/#22dd623660a8
Placer County Library (2024a). Adult Book Club. County of Placer. Retrieved 5 February 2024, from https://www.placer.ca.gov/9136/Adult-Book-Club
Placer County Library (2024b). Location and Hours. County of Placer. Retrieved 5 February 2024, from https://www.placer.ca.gov/9078/Locations-Hours
TomatoFruitBat. (2023). We shrug this off like it’s a “that’s life” or “well, inflation sucks, nothing’s free” kind of thing. But it [Online forum post]. Reddit. Retrieved 5 February 2024, from https://www.reddit.com/r/Sacramento/comments/10l56n6/comment/j5vrq9o/
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2019). Job flexibilities and work schedules summary. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/flex2.nr0.htm
Zulkey, C. (2019, September 3). Automatic for the people. American Libraries. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2019/09/03/automatic-people-self-service-libraries/
Jeanna,
I really appreciate the points you make in this post. How can libraries be seen and used as community hubs if they aren’t open at times that the majority of people can visit? I’m lucky to work for a library that has evening hours (open until 9pm) Monday-Wednesday. We recently started up a new monthly program and, for now, we’re experimenting with different days of the week and times and seeing what works best for our community. A library in my library system also experimented with an open+ style system, but I haven’t heard how that played out.
I think this topic can lead to a funding talk, but that’s a conversation for another day, heh.
Sara
Hi Jeanna,
Thank you so much for bringing this important point forward! My county library system has the same 10am-6pm hours, which puts such limitations on who gets to benefit from programs, services, and education that our system offers. I really appreciate your examples of how we may unlock this access, via Bibliotheca’s Open+ system and your idea of collaboration with Parts & Rec services. There is so much opportunity for expanded operation and use of library spaces to truly serve all people, especially working people, if we push beyond institutionally-imposed boundaries.