The book on library hours

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

The Millennium Library

Downtown Winnipeg's Millennium Library is open fewer hours per week than most of its counterparts in Canada's largest cities -- but council's solution might involve extending the hours for suburban libraries instead.

Winnipeg's busiest library branch, which claims to attract 1.5 million visitors a year, is open 62 hours per week during the colder months and 58 hours a week during the summer, when it's closed on Sundays.

According to a Free Press survey of library hours of operation, those 62 hours allow Winnipeg's flagship library to rank 15th among the main library branches in Canada's 18 largest cities.

Montreal's Grand Bibliothèque, which keeps its new-release section open longer than the rest of its collection, leads the survey by allowing visitors to linger an unrivalled 98 hours every week.

Quebec City's Bibliothèque Gabrielle Roy ranks No. 2 by staying open 76.5 hours every week, while Edmonton's Stanley A. Milner Library leads all predominantly anglophone libraries by staying open 73 hours. Winnipeg's Millennium Library outranks only its survey counterparts in Oshawa, Ont., Victoria, B.C. and St. Catharines, Ont. -- and is dead last among main libraries in Canada's 10 largest cities.

"I think we can do way better," said St. Boniface Coun. Dan Vandal, who wants the Millennium Library to have enough funds to stay open beyond 5 p.m. on weekend evenings.

"I'd like to see the Millennium Library open later on Fridays and Saturdays during the prime winter months, when university students are out," he said, claiming the downtown facility has not been fully utilized since its $21-million renovation was completed in 2005.

According to library services manager Rick Walker, the Millennium Library attracts 1.5 million visitors a year. Vandal says that's more than MTS Centre, though he acknowledges the apples-to-oranges nature of a comparison between the estimated attendance at a free amenity and the paid admission at a privately operated venue.

Looking across Canada, only two major libraries open their doors on Friday or Saturday nights. Part of Montreal's Grand Bibliothèque is open until midnight every night, while Edmonton's Milner Library is open until 9 p.m. on Fridays.

The 16 other libraries in the Free Press survey shut down on Friday and Saturday by 5 or 6 p.m.

Keeping the Millennium Library open longer on weekends would cost more than $500,000, Walker said in a statement. That cash would cover the cost of salaries and benefits required to allow staff to keep the venue operating longer, he said.

City council is planning on spending more money on libraries this year, but not on its downtown flagship. On the floor of council last week, Mayor Sam Katz said he intends to extend the hours of three or four suburban library branches.

The extra funding should be included in the first draft of the 2010 operating budget, which Katz and city council finance chairman Scott Fielding intend to present to executive policy committee on Feb. 16. Vandal said he's open to that idea but noted Winnipeg has a "downtown-first" policy.

"We're supposed to do everything we can to bring people downtown," he said, calling the Millennium Library a major success story. "It's a tremendous asset and we have to start treating it like an asset."

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

At least we beat Oshawa

Among the main library branches in Canada's largest cities, Winnipeg's Millennium Library ranks near the bottom in terms of the number of hours it's open every week. Here's how the main libraries in Canada's 18 largest cities stack up, according to the hours of operation listed on their websites:

How we stack up

1. Grand Bibliothèque (Montreal): Open 98 hours a week (news and new releases); 62 (other collections)

2. Bibliothèque Gabrielle-Roy (Quebec City): 76.5

3. Stanley A. Milner Library (Edmonton): 73

4. Central Library (Hamilton): 69

5. Central Library (Windsor, Ont.): 68

6. Central Library (London, Ont.): 68 winter; 65 summer

7. Main Library (Kitchener, Ont.): 66.5

8. Vancouver Central Library: 65

9. Alderney Gate Public Library (Halifax): 65 winter; 62 summer

10. Francis Morrison Library (Saskatoon): 64.5

11. The Central Library (Calgary): 64

12. Regina Central Library: 63.5

13. Toronto Reference Library: 63 winter; 59.5 summer

14. Main Library (Ottawa): 63 winter; 59 summer

15. Millennium Library (Winnipeg): 62 winter; 58 summer

16. McLaughlin Library (Oshawa, Ont.): 57

17. Central Library (Victoria, B.C.): 57 winter; 53 summer

18. Central Library (St. Catharines, Ont.): 50.5 winter; 47 summer

- Kives

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 4, 2010 B1