ACT Government to cut opening hours for Canberra libraries

The ACT Government is cutting the opening hours of Canberra’s public libraries to reduce costs, reports ABC News.

From December, opening hours will be reduced by 31 hours a week across the state’s nine branches. Libraries will close at 4pm on Saturdays instead of 5.30pm, and only the three busiest libraries at Dickson, Gungahlin and Woden will stay open until 8pm once a week.

The changes are expected to save around $50,000 this year and twice this amount next year.

Director of Libraries ACT Vanessa Little said the new opening hours reflect the periods of greatest demand from library users. ‘The low levels of usage in the evening were becoming quite apparent,’ she said, adding that ‘people will move their usage onto another evening or to another library’.

‘There is always our online services, our e-books, our e-resources,’ she said.

Category: Library news