The Windsor Public Library will move to their new hours of operation effective Sunday.
Starting January 5, nine branches will be open seven days a week, and hours of operation will be standardized across the board. Only the Local History branch, located on Sandwich Street, will be unavailable on Sundays.
The open hours for the branches are from 12 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. all other days, including Sundays.
When the change was approved in August, a number of delegates expressed concerns around potential loss of programming, the loss of being able to go from one library to another when one closes, lack of transit to library locations on Sunday's with the new proposed hours, and gaps in hours.
Mark McKenzie, ward 4 councillor and chair of the WPL board, says residents have expressed their excitement over the new hours.
"We've been hearing for the past few years that residents are saying 'look, we want to be going to the libraries on Sunday', there's a few that were already open on Sundays, and the attendance was very good at all of those branches. So we said let's expand this to all of our branches, that way we're fair and equitable to all neighbourhoods."
He says attendance during these new hours will be monitored to see if they need to be adjusted.
"We're always looking at hours, and we want to adjust, we want to make sure that we're open when the public actually wants us to be open. So that could mean maybe we end up opening later, but we stay open a little bit later as well. So, nothing is ever off the table. Just like the retail business - you've got to be open when the customer wants you to be open."
McKenzie says the board decided to eliminate the "summer" and "winter" hours.
"Residents didn't really know, you had to start Googling around, and being like 'okay, what branch is open late today?'. And so that was one thing we said, let's standardize these hours, no more of the winter hours and the summer hours, let's just have the same hours all year round so that way it's just easier for residents to know when libraries are open."
Previously only three branches were open on Sundays.
McKenzie adds that in terms of Transit Windsor hours on Sunday that conversations are ongoing to potentially alter those hours to align with the library hours.