New York City Council Approves Budget for Six-Day-a-Week Library Service

Public libraries in New York City just won a major victory. The New York City Council passed a $59 billion budget last Friday, which, for the first time in six years, will allow six-day service at all public libraries.

Under the plan, the newly expanded hours, which were lost in budget cuts after 9/11, would begin immediately, not over three years, as was originally proposed.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn says the budget enables "our libraries to be open six days a week so working families can visit them."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Quinn sealed the budget agreement with a handshake and a kiss in the City Hall rotunda last week, weeks earlier than usual and the earliest since Bloomberg took office in 2002. The agreement is a "tribute to the cooperative relationship we’ve developed with the City Council leadership, members and the budget staff," Bloomberg and Quinn said in a joint announcement. "Together we’ve reached a budget that we think is good for the entire city and one that will carry us over and keep us from making some of the mistakes of the past."