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Politics & Government

Dormont Library Experiment Results In Extended Hours

Library makes changes to stay current, accessible.

Last summer, Cindy D'Agostino, director of the , wanted to see if adding hours would bring in more patrons.

The experiment has proven successful enough that the library has kept the extra hours - and has seen a substantial increase in usage.

“A lot of people were worried that once summer was over, we’d go back to the old hours,” said D’Agostino. But that's not planned.

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The library added more morning hours to accommodate potential users.

“We wanted to increase our services to seniors, children and other people who rise early or have afternoon obligations,” said D’Angostino.

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Library hours are now Monday-Thursday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The library is closed on Sundays.

“In total, we increased 16 hours since last summer,” Dagostino said. 

Staff has been added and volunteer hours increased to handle the additional traffic, she said.

“I don’t know of any day (since the addition of hours) that we’ve not been busy,” she said.

The library has also recently begun loaning e-books though a program at all Allegheny County libraries.

D’Agostino hopes that as awareness of the program grows, more people will use the free service.

“Downloading e-books has become more and more commonplace,” she said.

D’Agostino is also looking into the idea of offering home delivery for residents who cannot make it to the library.

There's no timeframe, but she's optimistic about the potential.

“It might open us up to some new users,” she said. “Of course, we’re going to have to limit the numbers until we get our footwork down.”

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