Libraries across Leeds are now fully open and are offering residents a wide range of support and services, from free digital skills courses to children’s story time sessions and live performances.
To mark local libraries coming fully back to life, their opening hours changed on Monday 1 November to better reflect residents returning to the workplace and children going back to school. In January, the council ran a survey with residents, asking them how and when they use library services, and how the existing opening hours could be changed to suit them better.
Library users said they wanted to have more consistent opening times which could fit in easily with their busy lives, while they also requested longer opening hours on Saturdays and weekdays. In addition, responses to the survey showed that Sunday was the day when they were least likely to visit a library and as a result the council has made the decision to close them on Sundays to provide the increased flexibility of later hours on other days.
All of the new hours for each library can be seen at www.leeds.gov.uk/libraries, while the details will also be posted on each Community Hub and library’s Facebook page.
Councillor Mary Harland, Leeds City Council’s executive member for communities said:
“I would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete the survey earlier this year.
“The last 18 months were clearly a challenging time for libraries and our library users, but we’re at a point where our libraries have re-opened their doors and are now organising a busy programme of events and activities for people to enjoy this autumn and over the festive period.
“By updating the opening hours, we are making our library services as accessible as possible to as many people as possible, and reflecting residents’ opening time preferences as far as we can.”
The full range of support and services available in all the city’s libraries will continue as before, and the opening times for most of the Community Hubs will stay the same. The Community Hubs and libraries look forward to welcoming existing and new people to their services www.leeds.gov.uk
To find out about library events and activities near you, please go to www.leedsinspired.co.uk Most of the events are free to attend.
