Public Library Hours One Year Later

Dear Diary,

Tuesday night I got tired of trying to map Brooklyn (meaning the southwestern U-District) and decided to see how hard it would be to re-compile public library hours.

It turned out to be really easy because relatively few libraries have changed hours.  So I decided, after all, to update all the public libraries whose hours I'd covered in detail in April.

Previous pages

In case anyone starts reading this who isn't familiar with the situation, let me explain.  A year ago I wrote in you, dear Diary, a page that fairly rapidly became one of your most read pages.  It was about library hours at the Seattle Public Library and at several college and university libraries in Seattle.

Six months later, I attempted to survey all the libraries of western Washington.  I've learnt a lot along the way, so in September I updated some of these surveys.  They were built around my own modification of the classification used by my main source, the Washington State Library's database of Washington libraries.  They classify libraries as "Academic", "Governmental", "Public" or "Special".  I prefer "Academic", "Governmental", "Private, non-Academic" and "Public".  In other words, I classify libraries considered "special" by the profession of librarians as academic or governmental if they're owned by schools or units of government.  Anyway, none of the resulting pages has become one of your most popular, dear Diary.

In detail:

• "Library Hours in Month Twenty of the Lockdowns", October 2021
• "A Library Hours Update", November 2021
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part I:  Public libraries, introduction", April 2022.  Kinds of public libraries (municipal, funded from city budgets, versus district, funded by their own property taxes) and ways to get library cards, including reciprocity agreements.
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part II:  Public libraries, Seattle and nearby", April 2022.  Seattle Public Library and libraries that have reciprocity agreements with SPL.
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part III:  Public libraries, farther from Seattle", April 2022.  Libraries in western Washington that appear to offer cards to Washingtonians, including us in Seattle, without reciprocity agreements; and a list (without detailed hours coverage) of other public libraries in western Washington.
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part IV:  Public libraries' rules", April 2022.  Six rules that often entangle homeless people:  hygiene rules (don't be smelly), camping bans, sleeping bans, loitering bans, box rules (don't carry much stuff) and grooming bans (don't stop being smelly at the library).  After discussing each kind of rule in general, goes library by library through part II and the first half of part III, also attempting to establish the prevalence of homelessness in that library's service area, and looking at other relationships the library has with homelessness.
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part V:  Public libraries - errata, analysis, comments", April 2022.  The analysis and comments develop, with regard to the libraries in part II and the first half of part III, two arguments explained below.
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part VI:  Other local governmental libraries", April 2022.  City, tribal and county libraries.
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part VII:  Other governmental libraries", April 2022.  State and federal libraries, plus a couple of quasi-governmental ones.
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part VIII:  Private libraries with websites", April 2022
• "The Seattle Public Library's Summer 2022 Hours", July 2022
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part IX:  Private libraries without websites", August 2022
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part X:  The Ocean Shores Public Library and a Foolish Mortal", September 2022.  Added to, but did not update, the libraries in parts II and III.  (The Ocean Shores Public Library belongs in the list of other libraries in part III, which I'm not updating much here.)
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part XI:  Yet more governmental libraries", September 2022.  Updated the libraries in parts VI and VII as well as adding.
• "Library Hours Six Months Later, part XII:  Yet more private libraries", September 2022.  Updated the libraries in part VIII as well as adding.
• "Academic Library Hours One Year Later, part I:  Public universities", October 2022.  This notes that part V omitted one rule Seattle Public Library shares with the University of Washington, a neglected property ban (don't walk away from your stuff).  I imagine that the main purpose of neglected property bans is to insulate the libraries from lawsuits after thefts, but once they exist, libraries may enforce them without regard to the probability of a lawsuit.  (SPL, in general, issues verbal warnings when library staff notice the situation; UW used to have slips that employees would leave with the property, saying something like 'If I'd been a thief, your stuff would be gone', and probably still has those.)

The arguments from part V of "Six Months Later" that matter here are these:

1. Public libraries have not been restoring hours to pre-pandemic levels (or, in a few case, actually increasing them beyond pre-pandemic levels) evenly.  Agree with me, for the sake of this argument, that "morning" library hours run from opening to 3 P.M. on weekdays, "evening" hours from 3 P.M. to closing Mondays through Thursdays, and "weekend" hours from 3 P.M. Fridays to closing Sundays (if any).  Then it's actually pretty easy to show that libraries all over western Washington, and probably beyond, have raced to restore morning hours, jogged to restore weekend hours, and walked very slowly to restore evening hours.  Unsurprisingly, I see this as a Bad Thing.  Not because, as a once and possibly future homeless person, I want longer library hours in general - for those purposes, all library hours are equally good.  Partly because as someone who usually works first shift, I care more about evening and weekend hours when housed.  But mainly because primary and secondary schools, in my experience, typically let out around 3 P.M., and I want libraries to be available for their students to work on homework.

2. Libraries on "the wrong side of the tracks" tend to have the shortest schedules, and I, unsurprisingly, see this also as a Bad Thing.  In most of western Washington, I mean by this phrase branches on the Indian reservations, but in Seattle, I mean the NewHolly branch.

Seattle Public Library

The Seattle Public Library has outdone itself:  Its libraries now follow fifteen schedules, the highest number I've noticed.

Before the pandemic, SPL libraries followed four schedules.  1) The longest was for Seattle Central Library, 62 hours per week.  2) Half the branches followed the next-longest, which differed from Central Library by being open one hour less on Sundays, 61 hours per week.  3) Most of the remaining branches followed a very different schedule, open seven hours five days per week, five hours (like other branches) on Sundays, and closed on Fridays, 40 hours per week.  4) The last four branches were open seven hours six days a week, plus five hours on Sundays, 47 hours per week.

Now?  Let's look at libraries that started with the two longer schedules first.

1. Greenwood and Lake City branches are open 61 hours per week; they're at their full pre-pandemic schedules.
2. Ballard and Rainier Beach branches are open 59 hours; all they're short is that they close at 6 P.M. rather than 8 P.M. on Mondays.
3. Beacon Hill, Broadview and Northgate branches are open 57 hours.  They close at 6 on both Mondays and Tuesdays.
4. Northeast branch is open 57 hours.  It closes at 6 both Wednesdays and Thursdays.
5. Capitol Hill branch is open 55 hours.  It closes at 6 both Mondays and Tuesdays, but also opens at noon rather than 10 A.M. Wednesdays.
6. Douglass-Truth is open 55 hours.  It closes at 6 both Mondays and Tuesdays, but also opens at noon Thursdays.
7. Central Library is open 54 hours.  It closes at 6 Mondays through Thursdays.
8. Columbia branch is open 53 hours.  It opens at noon Mondays and Tuesdays, and closes at 6 Wednesdays and Thursdays.
9. Southwest branch is open 45 hours.  It closes at 6 Mondays and Tuesdays, opens at noon Wednesdays and Thursdays, and is closed Saturdays.
10. West Seattle branch is open 45 hours.  It closes at 6 Mondays and Tuesdays, opens at noon Wednesdays and Thursdays, and is closed Fridays.

As this suggests, the libraries with the shorter pre-pandemic schedules now have considerably less diverse schedules.  In fact, the majority already have their full pre-pandemic schedules back.

11. High Point, South Park and University branches are all back to the 47-hour schedule they had before the pandemic.
12. International District-Chinatown branch is open 42 hours.  It's closed Sundays.
13. Delridge, Fremont, Madrona-Sally Goldmark, Montlake and Wallingford branches are all back to the 40-hour schedule they had before the pandemic.
14. Queen Anne branch is open 35 hours.  It's closed Sundays.
15. Green Lake, Magnolia and NewHolly branches are open 33 hours.  They're closed Saturdays.

The wrong side of the tracks?

SPL has changed schedules three and a half times since I wrote in April:  in May (a big increase), July (a big decrease), August (increase for NewHolly only, not that that branch didn't need it) and October (a small increase).  Here's the net result:  They've increased morning hours from 483 in April to 501 in October, with the pre-pandemic number being 522.  They've decreased evening hours from 449 to 440, as against 488.  And they've decreased weekend hours from 366 to 351, as against 393.  So all those adjustments add up to six fewer hours per week.  In percentage terms, SPL is 92% back from the pandemic, but 96% in mornings, 90% in evenings, and 89% on weekends.

This sort of thing, doubling down on "Business hours first!", turns out to be usual among western Washington libraries which have changed their hours at all in the past six months, but I'm happy to report that Kitsap Regional Library, some Sno-Isles Libraries branches, and Bellingham Central Library have swum against the tide.

Meanwhile, SPL's "Rules of Conduct" have the equivalent of a last-modified date in 2015, and the rules I quoted in part V of "Six Months Later" and part I of "Academic Libraries" are all still there.

King County Library System

KCLS has the most branches in western Washington, so just from the time cost point of view, I'm selfishly relieved it didn't revise its schedule completely, only made a few changes.  The downtown Renton branch re-opened, but the Kent Panther Lake branch closed.  (The building was pretty new, but somehow a driver slammed into it, hitting a homeless man on the way.)  Bellevue and Kent Regional Libraries added hours, and in fact Kent is now the only KCLS branch open seven days per week (presumably because its neighbour is closed, but I'll take what I can get). [1]  The branch in Crossroads Mall in Bellevue also added hours.  And the branch on 320th St in Federal Way cut hours.

Despite the swap in closures, KCLS is now back to 65% of its pre-pandemic hours, as against 63% in April.  That's 72% of morning hours, 57% of evening, and 67% of weekend.

KCLS's "Patron Code of Conduct" has a last-modified date in 2017 and still includes what I quoted in "Six Months Later" part V.  It also includes "Leaving personal property unattended or with staff" as "Unsafe or Disruptive" conduct.

[1] KCLS's Redmond Ridge location keeps really long hours seven days a week, but, according to a librarian I reached at the Redmond branch by phone, doesn't offer restrooms.  Turns out I hadn't included it in my calculations in April, and I don't this time either.

Sno-Isles Libraries

The main library system of Snohomish and Island counties had branches that had already by April returned to their full pre-pandemic schedules:  Brier and Mariner had the same schedules then as before the pandemic.  Today, Brier has traded a morning hour for an evening hour, and Mariner has added four hours, two morning, two evening.  Langley had in April a schedule with two more morning hours than before the pandemic, and still has that schedule today.  Five other libraries were, in April, open as many hours as before the pandemic, but all were on earlier schedules, had traded evening hours for morning ones:  Camano Island, Clinton, Darrington, Lakewood/Smoky Point and Sultan.

SIL has since April considerably revised its schedules, mostly increasing hours, although if it made an announcement I can't find it.  (As a result, I don't know whether they think of the resulting schedule, with 98% of their pre-pandemic total hours, as more or less final; how on Earth they paid for it when few other library districts, wholly dependent on property taxes, are increasing hours; etc.  The most informative article I found, not very much so, was in the Mukilteo Beacon.)

As I looked over the spreadsheet I keep this information in, I was struck that different branches have used these increases very differently:  Some are digging deeper into the "Business hours first" model, while others have restored their pre-pandemic schedules, and three (Brier, Lakewood and Mariner) have actually increased evening hours.  Rather than bore you, dear Diary, with lots of words, here's a table:

Library	July 2019				October 2022
	Total	Morn	Eve	Wkend	Total	Morn	Eve	Wkend
Arlington	62	27	20	15	56	25	16	15
Brier	40	18	11	11	40	17	12	11
Camano Island	48	23	14	11	52	29	12	11
Clinton	40	18	11	11	40	20	9	11
Coupeville	56	25	16	15	58	30	12	16
Darrington	48	23	14	11	48	25	12	11
Edmonds	65	30	20	15	64	29	20	3
Freeland	56	25	16	15	58	30	12	16
Granite Falls	56	25	16	15	56	25	16	15
Lake Stevens	60	25	20	15	56	25	16	15
Lakewood/Smokey Point	40	18	11	11	48	25	12	11
Langley	48	23	14	11	50	25	14	11
Lynnwood	72	29	24	19	64	25	20	15
Mariner	48	23	14	11	52	25	16	11
Marysville	64	29	20	15	64	29	20	15
Mill Creek	64	29	20	15	60	25	20	15
Monroe	64	29	20	15	56	25	16	15
Mountlake Terrace	64	29	20	15	64	29	20	15
Mukilteo	64	29	20	15	64	29	20	15
Oak Harbor	64	29	20	15	64	29	20	15
Snohomish	64	29	20	15	64	29	20	15
Stanwood	60	25	20	15	58	29	14	15
Sultan	48	23	14	11	50	25	14	11
Total	1295	583	395	317	1274	608	363	303

Important caveat:  The Edmonds branch is mostly closed.  There's a "pop-up" inside the building whose hours I've used instead.  However, it doesn't include public restrooms; a librarian I reached by phone said they're sending people to the Frances Anderson Center nearby.  But that center is closed on weekends, so I've dinged SIL here and at the end of this page for its weekend hours.

SIL's "Customer Conduct Policy" has a last-modified date in 2020, still has the rules I quoted in April, and appears not to have a neglected property ban.

Kitsap Regional Library

The only public libraries in Kitsap County are the nine branches of KRL.  Before the pandemic, four of these branches were open 39 to 47 hours per week (39 was the Little Boston branch, on the Port Gamble S'Klallam Reservation).  In April these branches were open 38 or 41 hours per week, and they still are today.  The other five branches were open 53 or 54 hours per week (54 was Bainbridge Island).  In April, these branches were open 41 hours per week.  Now they're all open 46 hours, and the increase, at each branch, is four evening hours and one weekend hour.

KRL is now open 225 morning hours, up from 198 before the pandemic; 92 evening hours, down from 140; and 68 weekend hours, down from 100.  That's 88% of total hours, versus 83% in April; 114% of morning hours, 66% of evening hours (up from 51% in April), and 68% of weekend hours.

They also didn't release an announcement, although at least here I found where to look for one.

Their policies have a last-modified date of July 2022!   Let's see what's changed.  They've mildly modified a rule I commented on thus in April:

Something very like a loitering rule, without using the phrase:  "Patrons not engaged in reading, studying, research, meeting or using Library resources appropriately may be asked to leave the building."  And of course, the "appropriately" formulation also pretty much justifies enforcement against sleepers and groomers too, as at KCLS.

This now reads:  "Library patrons not engaged in reading, studying, research, meeting or using library resources may be asked to leave."  No more explicit sleeping or grooming ban has been added, although this formulation still provides librarians with some basis, perhaps enough basis, to act against sleepers and groomers.

I didn't note this in April:  "Overnight parking or camping on library property is prohibited."  This is in fact new, since a January 2022 capture at the Internet Archive, with last-modified date in February 2019, doesn't include it.

This is a more defensible version of a neglected property ban:  "Patrons may not store unattended belongings on the library premises".  SPL's neglected property rule has been applied to me (though only by verbal warnings) when I've gone to the restroom or to look at books; the use of "store" here implies that this rule is aimed at more prolonged absences, such as overnight.  A longer version of this was in the January 2022 capture.

The hygiene and box rules I quoted in April are still there.

Everett Public Library

EPL's hours haven't changed since April, its Rules of Conduct have a June 2014 last-modified date, and all the policies I quoted in April are still there, plus a neglected property ban:  "Leaving personal items unattended.  Unattended items are subject to confiscation."

Tacoma Public Library

TPL's hours haven't changed since April. However, this time I'm dinging TPL for still not allowing restroom usage at its Main Library, which is currently projected to be done with renovations in, um, 2024.

TPL now has a working policies page for the first time since 2016, and it includes the July 2015 rules of conduct I quoted in April (also featuring a neglected property ban:  "Leaving packages, backpacks, or any other personal items unattended."), as well as a May 2011 set specific to the restrooms.

Timberland Regional Library

This is the larger of the two multi-county library districts in western Washington, covering Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific and Thurston counties.  (A few communities in Lewis County aren't part of it, and the Ocean Shores Public Library in Pacific County isn't either.)

TRL, like KCLS, has changed only a few libraries' hours.  The Shelton (Mason County) branch has re-opened to fewer hours than before it closed; the Ilwaco (Pacific County) branch has cut hours; the South Bend (Pacific County) has gone from being open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays to being open Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (as a result, that branch is now open only during business hours).  And in Thurston County, the Olympia and West Olympia branches are differentiating themselves through their schedules.  Olympia used to open at 11 A.M. Mondays through Thursdays, closing at 8 P.M. the first two days, 7 P.M. the other two.  It now opens 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. six days per week.  Meanwhile, West Olympia, which opened only last year, was in April open at 11 A.M. Mondays through Saturdays, closing at 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 5 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays.  It's now open 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. Fridays through Sundays, the only Sunday hours TRL currently offers; no branch was open Sundays as of March 2, 2020 either.

TRL was open more hours than before the pandemic already in April, thanks to two new branches, and has extended that.  It is now open 622 morning hours per week, compared to 529 then; 263 evening hours, vs 305; and 283 weekend hours, vs 240.  On net, it's open 109% of pre-pandemic hours, 118% morning, 86% evening, 118% weekend.  This is slightly fewer than I reported in April, because at that time the Shelton branch was closed, but I reported based on the hours it had before it had closed; in reality, it's an increase since April, though not an increase since the closure.

TRL's Behavior Expectations Handout (1-page PDF) has a last modified date of August 2021, still includes the policies I quoted in April, and does not include a neglected property ban.

Pierce County Library System

PCLS's hours have changed for only two branches.  The Fife branch has subtracted two morning hours, and the Lakewood branch has been closed; PCLS says the building needs more repairs than it's worth, and is pushing for a new building.  I don't think this justifies updating the numbers I reported in April in words, but anyone interested may see the table later in this page.  I hope any new Lakewood building has better security, so as to foil the person (or maybe persons) who's stolen several older Korean TV dramas from the old building.

PCLS's "Library Rules of Conduct" have a last-modified date of October 2019, and do not include a neglected property ban.

Puyallup Public Library

PPL's hours have not changed.  Its "Code of Conduct" has a last-modified date of May 2018, and includes a neglected property ban:  "Leaving packages, backpacks, luggage, or any other personal items personally unattended (unattended items are subject to immediate confiscation)."  (Emphasis added.)  I guess it's a really bad idea to go to the bathroom in that building and leave anything behind.

Port Townsend Public Library

We're now into the libraries that say, at their websites, that they offer cards to most Washington residents, but don't have reciprocity deals with SPL.  (I wrote to all six in April, but none of the wording I quoted in part III of "Six Months Later" has been changed.)  All of the six libraries in this group, whose hours I discussed in part III, are farther from my house in North Seattle than at least the nearest branch of any of the libraries I'd discussed in part II.

(Of the libraries that do have reciprocity agreements with SPL, SIL and KRL both offer cards to most Washington residents anyway.)

PTPL has re-opened Mondays.

The City of Port Townsend's "Sharing the Space Policy" (2-page PDF) has no last-modified date; a related "Infographic" has in its URL a date of June 2019.  The policy includes a rule that resembles, but is much more defensible than, a box rule, but segues into a neglected property ban:  "Backpacks, bags, packages, or other personal belongings are allowed in the facility, but they must remain within the visitor’s personal space. They may not be so large or cumbersome that they interfere with other patrons and may not be left unattended at any time."

North Olympic Library System

NOLS, which has four branches in Clallam County, has taken to opening three of them an hour earlier, not just earlier than in April, but also earlier than before the pandemic, on Fridays and Saturdays.

NOLS's "Patron Rule of Conduct" (2-page PDF) has a last-modified date of March 2015.  It still includes all the rules I quoted in April, but I don't see a neglected property ban.

Central Skagit Library District / Sedro-Woolley Library

CSLD has simplified and expanded its schedule.  It had been opening at 9 A.M. Tuesdays through Saturdays, closing at 7 P.M. Tuesdays through Thursdays and at 5 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays.  It now opens at 10 A.M. and closes at 6 P.M. Mondays through Saturdays.

Its "Patron Code of Conduct" (2-page PDF) has no last-modified date, but the year 2020 is in its URL.  It still includes the rules I quoted in April, but not a neglected property ban.

Whatcom County Library System

WCLS hasn't changed its schedule since April.

Its "Disruptive Behavior" list (3-page PDF) has a last modified date in June 2018, and still includes everything I quoted.  It lacks a neglected property ban.

Bellingham Public Library

BPL has complicated and expanded its schedule.  Its Central Library had been open 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. Mondays through Saturdays.  It's now opening at 10 A.M. Mondays through Saturdays and at 1 P.M. on Sundays, and closing at 7 P.M. Mondays through Thursdays, 6 P.M. Fridays and Saturdays, and 5 P.M. Sundays.

BPL's "Rules of Conduct", with a last modified date of November 2018, still has all the things I quoted in April, and also, in a list of "Use ... for purposes not intended", "Leaving personal items unattended."

Camas Public Library

CPL, which had already re-attained its full pre-pandemic schedule in April, hasn't changed it since.

CPL's "Rules of Conduct" (1-page PDF) has a last-modified date of September 2018, and still reads as I quoted it, partially in full, in April; it didn't include a neglected property ban (or any of the other policies homeless people trip over) then and doesn't include one now.

Summing Up

Dear Diary, I'm a little tired of writing these pages.  My understanding of the Federal Reserve's recent moves is that they're trying to induce a recession not just in order to whip inflation, but also so that labour will return to its usual subservience to capital.  One side effect may be my renewed homelessness, but another may be expanded library hours, as libraries find it easier to staff shifts.  I want those expansions to go more evenly.  I'm not calling for libraries to return to their pre-pandemic hours because I think those hours should be cast in stone, but because I think a trend has been occuring, pushing library hours earlier, probably because of labour strength, and I fear new hours written now will obey that trend rather than reflect community preferences.  I don't want evening library hours to become a distant memory.

So I've already named names in this page, calling out individual branches of Sno-Isles Libraries.  Now I'm going to do the same thing on a broader scale.  Here are the fifteen libraries in this page, the percentages to which they've restored morning, evening and weekend hours, and the numbers of hours they're currently open.

Library or Library System	Percentages				Numbers
	Total	Morn	Eve	Wkend	Total	Morn	Eve	Wkend
King County Library System	65	72	57	67	1879	828	635	416
Seattle Public Library	92	96	90	89	1292	501	440	351
Sno-Isles Libraries	98	104	92	96	1274	608	363	303
Timberland Regional Library	109	118	86	118	1168	622	263	283
Pierce County Library System	81	100	54	93	794	401	202	191
Whatcom County Library System	101	108	92	102	444	199	144	101
Kitsap Regional Library	88	114	66	68	385	225	92	68
Tacoma Public Library	88	88	88	88	280	112	91	77
North Olympic Library System	98	106	84	103	196	103	59	34
Everett Public Library	95	100	89	93	108	50	32	26
Bellingham Public Library	93	100	100	78	104	47	28	29
Camas Public Library	100	100	100	100	54	25	18	11
Puyallup Public Library	104	108	94	111	53	27	16	10
Port Townsend Public Library	95	100	88	93	52	25	14	13
Central Skagit Library District	89	100	60	122	48	25	12	11
Over All	86	95	73	87	8131	3798	2409	1924

As you can see, dear Diary, although I may be exaggerating, I'm not just crying wolf.

Anyway.  I thought as I was working on this page that I was being a little hasty, that six months is too short a time to expect much, especially since most organisations budget on an annual basis, Seattle Public Library obviously a notable exception.  I'll try to update SPL's hours in April, although if they maintain their recent speed of changes, I may have to do so sooner.  But I hope to return to this topic more fully next October and find very different results, although if I do become homeless again, and my laptop is stolen, I may not be able to present them so easily.  Until then, dear Diary, I still have parks of North Seattle and downtown Seattle to work on, as well as academic libraries, so don't expect me to be silent for very long, but it may be a few days.  Happy nights and days until then.