This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

More Books, No Problem: Scranton Library Begins Regular Hours This Week

It is another milestone—albeit one that still can’t be marked with any large celebration—as the E.C Scranton Library returns to what are essentially full-time hours this week, ending the pick-up and drop-off book services provided since the fall as they look to expand service and phase in amenities throughout the summer.

There were only a handful of people on hand that first Monday morning, May 10, as the doors opened, though Scranton Head of Public Services Allison Murphy said staff members were “so excited” to welcome the public in without appointments and throughout the day.

“We’re really just enjoying people being inside and using the library,” Murphy said.

Now open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. three days a week, with extended hours stretching to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, residents finally have access to their beloved library on a regular basis after contending with temporary shutdowns and hyper-limited hours through the fall and winter.

Seating is also now available, though limited, in every section of the library.

These offerings are made possible by two newly hired custodians who were necessary to maintain cleaning standards set by the state, Library Director Sunnie Scarpa previously told The Source. A $33,000 special appropriation was approved for reopening, with about $13,000 going toward the part-time custodial positions, though this request drew some pushback from town officials back in February.

After initially offering appointments in the early fall, the library opened up to walk-ins sporadically for about four hours a day, split between morning and evening, until early January, when it again shut its doors in response to spiking cases around the state.

Scarpa previously cited the death of a librarian in Shelton, saying Scranton closed “in the nick of time” to avoid those kinds of tragedies.

A little less than two months later, Madison’s library opened again with the same limited hours, and Scarpa made it clear that custodians would be needed to clean throughout the day for anything like normal hours to be possible.

With that now accomplished, Murphy said the hope is to expand further, and begin offering weekend hours as well if the budget referendum passes on Tuesday, May 18. Scranton also plans to begin offering a limited amount of room and outdoor space for reservations likely as soon as the state broadly lifts COVID restrictions on Wednesday, May 19.

In the meantime, though, residents will finally begin seeing something like what they anticipated more than four years ago when they voted for renovations costing taxpayers around $9 million. Scranton had planned to open about 10 months ago in July 2020, but that was made impossible by the pandemic.

‘Back to Normal’

Jackie Peabody was one of the people browsing the library on May 10 with her daughter, Maddie. She said it was not her first time visiting the library, having taken advantage of the limited in-person hours earlier this year, but that the library felt different as they romped through the children’s section.

“It’s nice to be getting back to normal,” Peabody said.

Murphy also said library staff was starting to embrace some kind of normalcy. Scranton’s café, which doesn’t serve food, but is set up for patrons to bring in their own snacks or drinks-, will likely open next week as well, and other programs like a seed library to help residents populate their gardens are also moving forward.

Murphy described the feeling of looking out the window to see a group of younger folks setting up an impromptu pizza party in the library’s courtyard, laughing and enjoying themselves, with the bustling downtown in the background.

“It just looked so great,” she said.

For more information on the Scranton Library, visit www.scrantonlibrary.org.