December 22, 2023
Thom Carroll/For PhillyVoice
The Free Library of Philadelphia is resuming Saturday hours at 12 branches on Jan. 6, 2024. At that point, nearly half its 54 branches will offer weekend service – with more expected to add it as the year progresses.
The Free Library of Philadelphia is set to reopen 12 branches on Saturdays, allowing people to spend their weekends perusing the libraries' shelves for the first time in years.
The Free Library is resuming Saturday hours at all of its branches in waves. That process started this fall with the resumption of service at 10 locations.
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On Jan. 6, the following branches also will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays:
•Cecil B. Moore Library (2320 Cecil B. Moore Ave.)•Charles L. Durham Library (3320 Haverford Ave.)•Eastwick Library (2851 Island Ave.)•Fumo Family Library (2437 S. Broad St.)•McPherson Square Library (601 E. Indiana Ave.)•Nicetown-Tioga Library (3720 N. Broad St.)•Queen Memorial Library (1201 S. 23rd St.)•Ramonita G. de Rodriguez Library (600 W. Girard Ave.)•Richmond Library (2987 Almond St.)•Tacony Library (6742 Torresdale Ave.)•Torresdale Library (3079 Holme Ave.)•West Oak Lane Library (2000 E. Washington Lane)
With this rollout, nearly half of the Free Library's 54 branches will be open on Saturdays.
"(Opening Saturdays) really removes barriers to use," said Trenton Smiley, the Free Library's deputy director of communications. "There's a lot of folks who can't necessarily get in during the week, so this is definitely opening up those opportunities for folks to come in and utilize our resources."
The Fishtown Community and Logan branches originally were slated to be part of the Jan. rollout, but the resumption of Saturday hours at those branches has been delayed due to staffing issues, according to the library. Additional branches are expected to resume Saturday service during the first quarter of the year.
In July, the Free Library received a $1 million grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts to develop a strategic plan for its future. The city allocated $37 million across five years to allow the library to resume Saturday hours – a cause library workers had rallied for outside City Hall last year.
The library initially resumed weekend hours at several branches during a test run that begin last February.
In 2018, the Free Library cut Saturday hours at half of its branches due to budget and staffing restraints. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, the library shut down in-person operations at all of its branches. Limited hours resumed later that year and in 2021, but Saturday hours were not brought back anywhere until this year.
