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 Laurie Zeigler, of WRL's Circulation Department, brought her horse in for young people to pet on "Wide Open Friday." |
Friday Opening Popular at
Williamsburg and James City County Libraries
If you open it, they will come..... Response on July 2 to the first Friday morning opening of the Williamsburg and James City County Libraries in nine years was all that staff and patrons hoped it would be. While the libraries don't keep an actual door count, other business indicators showed a marked upswing during the four-hour period that began new business hours on Fridays. More than 3,100 items were checked out at both libraries during the extended eight-hour day, 800 items more than on previous Fridays when the libraries were open from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. During the first four hoursof the day, the adult reference department answered 54 requests for information either by phone or in person, while the children's reference desk handled 85 queries. Twenty-four patrons signed up to use the public Internet terminals during the same period. |
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Two programs by the Youth Services Department, Catch-A-Craft and Storytime, drew 370 participants. In order to mark what was called Wide Open Fridays, library staff dressed as favorite literary characters, handed out balloons and served cookies and lemonade to patrons who celebrated the 10 a.m. opening of both libraries. Also on hand for the festivities were the Toano Saxophone Ensemble and a horse that patrons, both young and old, enjoyed petting.
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| Phoebe Kent, a Williamsburg Regional Library Board member on hand for the festivities said, "As a Board, we are delighted that both our libraries can be open on Friday mornings. With the long period of construction in Norge and in Williamsburg finally behind us, we are delighted to provide our patient and loyal users these addtional hours of operation. We're grateful to the city and the counties for helping us to guarantee that the funds necessary to be open Friday mornings were in our budget." |
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The last time the Williamsburg Library was open Friday morning was in June 1990. The Williamsburg Regional Library Board of Trustees decided at that time to eliminate Friday hours in order to concentrate declining budgets toward purchase of books, tapes and other library materials. Support from the library's funding partners -- the City of Williamsburg, James City County and York County -- allowed both the Williamsburg Library and the James City County Library, which opened in 1996, to begin limited Friday service on July 3, 1998. Year round Sunday afternoon hours resumed at the beginning of this June. With the resumption of Friday morning service the libraries are open to the public 63 hours per week. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. |
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