Dale City Library Adds Friday Hours

A year and a half after being forced to end its Friday hours, the Dale City Neighborhood Library is again open on Fridays.

“We’re thrilled to have the hours back,” said Library Section Supervisor Jennifer Harden. “We have a lot of people coming in to use the computers.”

The library is now open from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Fridays, which Harden said allows the library to meet the community’s needs better. “I think it’s necessary,” she said. “For a lot of people, we’re the only access they have to the Internet and books.”

Along with other neighborhood libraries in Prince William County, the Dale City library had its hours cut in July of 2009 as a result of budget cuts that cost the library a staff member. Harden said she and the leaders of the other libraries have been requesting for quite a while to have Friday hours reinstated, but it took some time to work out the staffing. “We’ve just spread ourselves thinner,” she said.

Meeting the staffing need shouldn’t cause a problem for the library, though. “We’ve got a great roster of volunteers,” Harden said. “We already have all the volunteer slots filled up."

Harden said the library had a good turnout last Friday, the first week that the new hours went into effect. “Almost as many showed up the first Friday as did on Saturday,” she said. “Word is getting out.”