Côte-des-Neiges-N.D.G. defends holiday library hours
Having four locations can present issues with availability of personnel
Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-deGrâce, home to Montreal’s newest library, will be the worst borough in which to borrow a book this holiday season.
The borough’s libraries, criticized in the past for their meagre operating hours, will be closed for eight to 10 days between Dec. 23 and Jan. 4. Outremont is the other laggard among Montreal boroughs; its library will be closed eight days during this period.
Most other libraries on Montreal Island will be closed six days around Christmas and New Year’s Day, when school is out and many Montrealers take time off work.
Michelle Chartrand is among N.D.G. residents calling for better hours.
“My borough counts many low-income families who don’t buy books or have a chalet to go to during the holiday,” Chartrand wrote in a recent letter to the Montreal Gazette. “If they want to read a newspaper or a magazine, most cannot afford the subscription. Sometimes they are isolated seniors, single-parent families, people earning minimum wage or on welfare, and who cannot afford Internet services.”
Borough director Stéphane Plante said Côte-des-Neiges-N.D.G. is in a tight spot because it has four libraries and would have had a hard time staffing additional days because there are many statutory holidays with which to contend.
City workers are off Christmas and New Year’s Day, as well as the day before and the day after those days. If any of these six days fall on a weekend, the workers get the next day off. This year, Christmas and New Year’s fall on Sundays.
“Many other boroughs only have one or two libraries — we have four, so it’s not as easy to manage,” Plante said. “It’s not necessarily a budgetary issue; it’s also the availability of personnel. People have a right to days off.”
But “if we see that usage is high during the holidays this year and it’s worth it, we will see if we can have more hours next year.”
In 2015, the borough’s four libraries were only open two days between Dec. 24 and Jan 2., reopening on Jan. 3.
After complaints, the borough decided that two of the libraries would be open four days between Christmas and New Year’s this year, Plante said.
The Benny and Côte-des-Neiges libraries will be open four days during the holidays.
They will be closed Dec. 23-26, open Dec. 27-30 and then closed again Dec. 31-Jan. 3, with regular hours resuming on Jan. 4.
The borough’s smaller Botrel St. and intercultural libraries will be open only two days between Dec. 23 and Jan. 3.
In January, a Montreal Gazette analysis found Côte-des-NeigesN.D.G. libraries were open 46 hours per week, the lowest of any Montreal borough.
In the wake of that article, the borough extended its hours and boosted library funding.
In June, it said it would add $300,000 to its library budget so it could go to 53 hours per week (about average for city libraries) starting in late August.
In its 2017 budget, the borough said it would spend an additional $655,000 for extra library hours.
Plante said the borough has been pleasantly surprised by the popularity of the new Benny Library.
Opened in February, it’s part of a $23.6-million cultural centre at Monkland and Benny Aves.
It is being patronized by more than twice as many people as expected. In November, 50,500 used the library, Plante said. With 173,000 residents, Côte-des-Neiges-N.D.G. is Montreal’s most populous borough.
If we see that usage is high during the holidays this year and it’s worth it, we will see if we can have more hours next year.