November 15, 2023
Thom Carroll/for PhillyVoice
Saturday hours will roll out to select Free Library branches starting on Nov. 18. Other locations, like the Parkway Central branch pictured above, are expected to resume weekend service in the new year.
The Free Library of Philadelphia is restoring Saturday hours at 10 branches across the city, more than three years after all locations cut weekend service due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beginning on Nov. 18, nine of those branches will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The locations are spread throughout the city, ranging from Holmesburg to Girard Estates. They include:
• Charles Santore Library (932 S. Seventh St.)
• Greater Olney Library (5501 N, Fifth St.)
• Holmesburg Library (7810 Frankford Ave.)
• Katherine Drexel Library (11099 Knights Road)
• Lillian Marrero Library (601 W. Lehigh Ave.)
• Lovett Memorial Library (6945 Germantown Ave.)
• Thomas F. Donatucci, Sr. Library (1935 Shunk St.)
• Walnut Street West Library (201 S. 40th St.)
• Wynnefield Library (5325 Overbrook Ave.)
The 10th branch, the Wyoming Library in North Philly, will resume Saturday service on Dec. 2 due to HVAC installation delays.
The Free Library says Saturday hours at all locations are "being rolled out in waves," and that more branches will be added at the beginning of 2024. The first locations were selected based on staffing levels.
The city's library system has been moving toward this goal for the better part of the year, after a summer pilot program temporarily restored Saturday hours at 10 branches — including Charles Santore, Greater Olney and Walnut Street West — between July 8 and Aug. 26. Weekday hours also shifted in October.
All library branches shut down in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, but limited in-person services returned that August. It was sadly short-lived, as the Free Library closed yet again in November 2020 while winter cases surged, remaining shuttered until January 2021.
The library's struggle to maintain weekend hours dates back even further to 2018, when the Free Library cut Saturday hours at over half its branches due to budget and staffing issues. The current rollout of weekend service was made possible through a $37 million allocation in the city budget, which will be disbursed over five years.
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