Library Hours Six Months Later, part V: Public libraries - errata, analysis, comments

Dear Diary,

First of all, I have to make some corrections and updates.  I've now heard back from Jeannie Allen, Kitsap Regional Library's PR person, about the things I left uncertain in part II.  She indicates that homeless people can get the same kind of card as anyone else, and that KRL (which offers cards to residents of areas in Washington that support public libraries) does not offer cards to non-residents of those areas for fees.  She also notes that using the computers at KRL branches doesn't require a card.

I glossed over Tacoma Public Library's Eastside Microlibrary, at the Eastside Community Center, in part II because I still don't know its pre-pandemic hours, and am decreasingly hopeful that they're documented online.

I hope this is the last error, but it's a doozy.  While doing the calculations underlying this part, I found a bunch of errors in my calculations for the previous parts, mainly for the Timberland Regional Library.  In particular, Amanda Park, the TRL library at the Quinault Reservation, did not have the uniquely least pre-pandemic hours at TRL; it shared that honour with Oakville, at 26 hours per week.  And six locations, not five, are now at the same number of hours as before the pandemic.  I've put the spreadsheet I've worked from in my Google Drive folder, so anyone who really wants can find any more mistakes.  In the meantime I've edited the paragraphs about TRL in part II, but for those who've already read it, those are the errata.

OK, now that's over with, dear Diary, let's play a game.  Can you call four coin flips?

My public school days generally ended sometime around 3 P.M.  Seattle Public Schools' bell schedules indicate that forty years later, things are more or less similar.

So I divided the hours of all the public libraries where Seattleites are, or might be, able to get free library cards, into three buckets.  Morning hours are from opening to 3 P.M., Monday through Friday.  Evening hours are from 3 P.M. to closing, Monday through Thursday.  And weekend hours are from 3 P.M. Friday to opening Monday.  In all cases, I'm using the hours on my spreadsheet; I'm not tracking all these libraries' hours going forward, so if anything's already changed, too late.

Then the four coin flips are these:  1) Which libraries have increased total hours?  I'm counting only locations which (I assume) have desks, librarians, reference books, and computers, i.e. places where students can work on reports.  In practice, this means mostly regular branch libraries.  2) Which have increased morning hours?  3) How about evening hours?  4) And weekend hours?

Increased Total Hours

Increased Morning Hours

There are four cases here:  these libraries may have increased or decreased evening hours, and may have increased or decreased weekend hours.  Similarly for the other sections like this.

Timberland Regional Library has increased its total hours, counting only its regular branches and its partnerships with the North River School District (apparently not currently operating) and with the Shoalwater Bay Tribal Community Library (still going), and counting the two new branches and the schedule the Shelton branch was keeping before it closed for maintenance, from 1,074 to 1,180, nearly 10%.  It has also increased its morning hours, from 529 to 618.

The Puyallup Public Library has increased its total hours from 51 to 53, nearly 4%.  It has also increased its morning hours, from 25 to 27.

Whatcom County Library System has increased its total hours from 439 to 444, or just over 1%, if one counts the schedule the Sumas branch was keeping before it closed due to flooding.  It's also increased its morning hours, from 184 to 199.

Curiously, these three all fall under the same case.  All three have decreased evening hours and increased weekend hours.  TRL went from 305 evening hours to 271, and from 240 weekend hours to 291.  PPL went from 17 to 16 evening hours, and from 9 to 10 weekend hours.  And WCLS went from 156 to 144 evening hours, and from 99 to 101 weekend hours.

What's more, I don't have to do the next section at all.  No public library, of the group of concern here, increased its total hours without increasing its morning hours.

Isn't all this clumping strange, dear Diary?  I mean, we're flipping these coins fifteen times.  What are the odds?

Decreased Total Hours

Increased Morning Hours

Kitsap Regional Library has gone from 436 to 360 total hours, but from 198 to 225 morning hours, counting the schedule the Manchester branch was keeping before it recently closed for remodeling.  (The morning hour change represents opening at 10 A.M. instead of 1 P.M. on Thursdays at each of the nine branches, as discussed in part II.)

Pierce County Library System, not counting its Administrative Center (which has librarians and books but not study space), has gone from 986 to 851 total hours, but from 403 to 428 morning hours.

North Olympic Library System has gone from 200 to 190 total hours, but from 97 to 100 morning hours.

Again, these all fit in the same bucket:  All three of these library systems have decreased both evening and weekend hours.  At KRL, evening hours have gone from 140 to 72, and weekend ones from 100 to 63.  At PCLS, evening hours have dropped from 377 to 218, and weekend ones from 206 to 205.  And at NOLS, there used to be 70 evening hours, now 59, and 33 weekend ones, now 31.

This isn't much like flipping coins at all, is it, dear Diary?

Decreased Morning Hours

There are five libraries in this group, and one of them is actually not like the others.  Let's watch.

The Seattle Public Library has gone from 1,403 to 1,298 total hours, and from 522 to 483 morning hours.

King County Library System has gone from 2,884 to 1,827 total hours, and from 1,151 to 791 morning hours.  This includes the Kent branch which has re-opened (from a fire) while I've worked on this page, but not the Renton branch, which hasn't, and whose last hours captured at the Internet Archive clearly represent an earlier stage of KCLS's re-opening.  It also excludes the administrative building and Redmond Ridge, neither of which appears to have study space or reference books.  Finally, although the Kent Panther Lake branch opened before the pandemic, I don't know its schedule then, so it's only counted after the pandemic.

Sno-Isle Libraries have gone from 1,295 to 1,184 total hours, and from 583 to 556 morning hours.

The Port Townsend Public Library has gone from 55 to 45 total hours, and from 25 to 20 morning hours.

And Central Skagit Library District has gone from 54 to 46 total hours, and from 25 to 24 morning hours.  This is the distinctive one.  All of these libraries have fewer evening hours than before the pandemic, too, but CSLD has gone from 9 to 10 weekend hours; the other four are down weekend hours too.

So let's look at those.  SPL has gone from 488 to 449 evening hours, and from 393 to 366 weekend hours.  KCLS had 1,110 evening hours, now 629, and 617 weekend hours, now 407.  SIL was open 395 evening hours, now 315, and 317 weekend hours, now 313.  And PTPL offered 16 evening hours, now 12, and 14 weekend hours, now 13.  Finally, CSLD's evening hours fell from 20 to 12.

So I hope you're beginning to see a pattern here, dear Diary, but you'll also have noticed we're still short four libraries.  This is because I neglected the case where libraries have neither increased nor decreased one of the numbers.

Same Morning Hours

Two libraries - well, all right, five libraries in two systems - have kept the same morning hours.  As you might expect by now, dear Diary, both have decreased both evening and weekend hours, and as a result their total hours have decreased.

The Everett Public Library has gone from 114 total hours to 108.  This represents four fewer evening hours (36 to 32) and two fewer weekend (28 to 26).  Morning hours have re-opened to 50.

The Bellingham Public Library has gone from 112 total hours to 96.  This results from four fewer evening hours (28 to 24) and twelve fewer weekend (37 to 25).  Morning hours are again 47.

Same Total Hours and Morning Hours

Two libraries are back to their pre-pandemic schedules in full, without trading evening hours for morning and weekend ones.

The Tacoma Public Library, excluding the Eastside kiosk (which I doubt has study space or reference books), but counting the Main Library (which doesn't currently have study space or reference books), had and has 128 morning hours, 104 evening hours, and 88 weekend hours, for total hours 320.

The Camas Public Library was and is open 54 hours per week, of which 25 are morning, 18 evening, and 11 weekend.

Rage, Rage, against the Dying of the Light

So what does it mean, dear Diary?  It means that by and large, libraries near Seattle and scattered through the rest of western Washington are not open evenings much yet.  It means that the sense I got as I watched the reductions in evening hours at one pillar after another of the library systems familiar to me - Seattle Central, KCLS Bellevue, PCLS's major branches - and of those not familiar to me - SIL Lynnwood, TRL Olympia - was not mistaken:  closing times have gotten earlier almost everywhere.

Not in Tacoma, and not in Camas.  I wish their examples were being more widely followed.

But among the rest, SPL actually looks exceptionally good.  It has re-opened 93% of its morning hours, 92% of its evening hours, and 93% of its weekend hours.  In contrast, the numbers for KCLS are respectively 69%, 57% and 66%.  For SIL, 95%, 80% and 99%.  For KRL, 114%, 51% and 63%.  For TRL, 117%, 89% and 121%.  For PCLS, 106%, 58% and 100%.  For WCLS, 108%, 92% and 102%.  My point here is not these numbers' absolute values, but the fact that SPL, alone of the nearby big systems (again, except TPL), has evidently tried to balance them.  Everywhere else the pre-existing evening hours have taken more than their fair share of the cuts, or have even helped pay for increases at other times.

Susan Hempstead of SIL warned me that post-pandemic hours needn't actually be the same as pre-pandemic hours.  After all, the goal is to get the hours right for the community, and not to preserve a particular configuration in amber.  But I find it hard to believe that what's right for every community in western Washington except Seattle (and Tacoma and Camas) is to get rid of evening hours.

Who benefits from the morning hours that now dominate many western Washington public libraries' schedules?  Homeless people, for one.  The unemployed generally.  People who work third shift, and some of those who work second shift.  Non-working parents of small children.  School groups.  People who visit libraries on work hours, or for lunch.

Who benefits from weekend hours?  Almost everyone who doesn't work in retail.

Who benefits from evening hours?  The homeless.  People who work first shift (the great majority of employed people, as witness rush hour).  And above all, students.

I think what's happening is that most libraries are finding it hard to fill all their pre-pandemic hours with enough staff, because of the labour shortage, because being a librarian, especially in a public library, is a high-contact job and there's still a pandemic, and because of budget issues (but, um, when are there not budget issues?).  And I think evening hours are the first to be cut because librarians themselves may not wish to work evenings, and workers have more power right now.  So the libraries are trying to make up for the lights going out at night by opening more in the daytime, both weekdays and weekends.  In essence, betting that enough adults and little children will be glad of longer Saturday hours or unexpectedly open Sundays to drown out the older children and teenagers who needed those evening hours.

Other comments

The Wrong Side of the Tracks

We've seen that public libraries near or on Indian reservations tend to have the shortest hours - KRL's Little Boston (Jamestown Port Gamble S'Klallam), TRL's Amanda Park (Quinault), PCLS's Fife (Puyallup), WCLS's Island (Lummi) - but there are exceptions - KCLS's Muckleshoot, WCLS's Deming (Nooksack), arguably SIL's Darrington (Sauk-Suiattle, but some distance away, and mostly across the Skagit County line).  [Correction April 16.]

We've also seen that the Shoalwater Bay Tribal Community Library had, before the pandemic, the longest hours in Pacific County.  (Now it's tied with TRL's Ocean Park branch.)  Tribal libraries seem to require more work from me than I can give them in this part of this page; I now intend, before going on to the academic libraries, to write a part about them and about county law libraries.  But my point here is that the library systems we non-Indians call "public" don't consistently treat reservations' residents all that well.

It may seem that I'm trying to compliment SPL for not treating badly the Indian reservations Seattle doesn't include, but actually I'm after something else entirely.  Among SPL's libraries, surely the NewHolly branch is as wrong side of the tracks as they get.  And I don't think it's any kind of coincidence that NewHolly not only had the shortest schedule (in common with a bunch of other branches) before the pandemic, but has been the slowest to re-open - the last to physically open its doors, and now the one with the shortest hours, the only one open just four days per week.

(Instead, I'll give KCLS a half-compliment.  Its Greenbridge branch had, before the pandemic, a schedule way too similar to NewHolly's now, though with more hours.  But its White Center and Skyway branches kept the regular schedule, albeit without Sunday hours, just like Muckleshoot.)

I doubt very much this is actual overt racism, at SPL or at any of the other libraries I'm pointing to here.  I instead suspect that this, too, gets back to labour supply.  Probably NewHolly, Little Boston, and so forth aren't as attractive places to work as others in their respective systems.  No doubt one reason evening hours are currently hard to fill is the well-publicised violent crime wave; well, the wrong side of the tracks is classically the most violent place.  But this is an excellent example of what people younger than myself call "structural racism".  And as long as librarians are scared of the wrong side of the tracks, so serve it less quantity and less quality than other places, it'll stay the wrong side.

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Quite a few libraries that were normally open on Sundays are currently closed those days.  This is no surprise.  But a small number are now open on Sundays that didn't used to be, and another small number are open longer hours on Sundays than they used to be.

Libraries open Sundays that weren't so before the pandemic:  KCLS's Black Diamond, Duvall, Federal Way 320th, Kenmore, Skyway, Snoqualmie and White Center branches; none from any other system.

Libraries open longer on Sundays than they were before the pandemic:  KCLS's Auburn, Des Moines, Fairwood, Kirkland, Lake Hills (in Bellevue), Mercer Island, Newport Way (in Bellevue), Renton Highlands, Sammamish; again, none from any other system.

As an artifact of the way KCLS is dealing with the labour shortage - primarily, full-day closures, with shorter (evening) hours only secondary - one third of its branches are now open a full eight-hour day each Sunday, which didn't have that before.

Now, suburbanites are famously less prone to rioting than city-dwellers, so maybe I'm being excessively concerned here, but I think KCLS is going to find it really difficult to put this genie back into its bottle.  How many of those sixteen communities are going to be happy to give up those Sunday hours?  We've seen that libraries throughout western Washington appear to be using weekend hours to console for the loss of evening hours.  That implies that weekend hours are valued by the public, and no wonder.  So what does KCLS expect will happen, assuming it eventually tries to go back to weekends as they were before?

Money Changes Everything

Tacoma Public Library has restored its full (if mingy) hours, Puyallup Public Library has actually increased its hours, but Pierce County Library System, while at or above full morning and weekend hours, is way down on evening hours, so it's at 86% over all.

Seattle Public Library is 93% back; King County Library System is 63% back.

Everett Public Library is 95% back; Sno-Isle Libraries, 91%.

Bellingham Public Library is 86% back; Whatcom County Library System, 101%.

Apparently, in some counties city budgets have recovered faster than suburban or rural property taxes, while in others, not so much.  I don't know why, but I sure hope each relevant library has at least one employee who does know.

Different Is Not Dead

SPL and PCLS have made their schedules substantially more diverse.  I started this section thinking that quite a lot of other library systems have reduced their schedule diversity, but actually, that's not true.

I noted above that the "pillars" of various library systems - the ones with the largest collections and longest hours - were closing earlier.  I thought many library systems had also reduced diversity at the low end, kept the shortest-hours libraries at their existing schedules, or even increased their hours.  But this isn't true of SPL NewHolly, or to a lesser extent the other "little" SPL branches, and although KCLS Skykomish gained one hour, it's still open half as much as many KCLS branches.  Similarly for TPL's Eastside and PCLS's Anderson Island community center kiosks.  BPL has maintained the gap between its Central Library and its branches; EPL has created one that didn't exist before.  WCLS actually has several branches open only a third as many hours as its flagship ones, a difference even more severe now than it was before the pandemic.

TPL stands out because it actually conformed its Main Library to its branches' schedule just before the pandemic; so yes, now I do have documentation of most of TPL's locations pre-pandemic schedules, and not just a photograph of a sign (a sign which I didn't see on my most recent visit anyway).  KRL has reduced schedule diversity to just a few hours.  But these are the exceptions, not the rules.

Another kind of different has died more, though.  KRL used to open at 1 P.M. Thursdays, but now opens at 10 A.M. every day.  (On the other hand, PPL now opens at noon on Wednesdays.)  Many SIL locations used to open at 9 A.M. some weekdays; now they all open at 10 A.M.  (On the other hand, lots of TRL locations that used to open at 10 now open at 9 A.M., so as to close at 6 P.M. instead of 7 P.M.)

So I seem to be running out of comments on public library hours, dear Diary, and obviously should just shut up instead.  Next part, county law libraries, Indian tribal libraries, and anything else even more exotic.  Then the academic libraries.  No predictions as to when, but I need to get out of the house each day this weekend, so nothing too soon.  Happy days and nights until we meet again, dear Diary.