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Today, Spencer Bradley plans to be in his usual spot at the University City branch library – sitting at a desk picking up free Wi-Fi on his laptop computer.
It's the first Sunday in two months that he and other Mecklenburg County residents will be able to visit public libraries, which were closed on Sundays this summer to save money.
With school back in session, the seven library locations that had previously had Sunday hours are back in business all weekend.
“I don't know what we'd do without a library,” Bradley said Saturday, checking e-mail for his IT consulting business at the University City branch.
Bradley has no Internet access at his Northeast Charlotte home, so the library is essential to his work. He visits the University City branch daily and likes its studious atmosphere better than coffee shops or other places offering free Wi-Fi.
Mallard Creek Elementary School teacher Amy Bright also welcomes the return of Sunday hours.
She tutors students at the University City library. “When they closed on Sundays, I had to rearrange my schedule,” Bright said Saturday, sitting at a child-size table with two students poring over workbooks.
Some students can only meet with her on weekends because of weekday sports. Sunday also is the day she can bring her 1-year-old son, Micah, to the library to do puzzles and check out books.
Besides University City, the Main Library and ImaginOn, Independence, Morrison, South County and North County branches will be open 1 to 6 p.m. Sundays, beginning today.
The library reduced summer hours at the seven locations as part of efforts to cut its operating budget by 10 percent as requested by the county.
Library spokesperson Cordelia Anderson said the shortened summer hours were intended to have the least impact on customers, especially students, who rely on the library for computers and research materials.
Sunday hours at University City will make life easier for Ademola Fapetu, 27, a student himself and father of six children.
“Sometimes on Sunday, my kids realize they have a project due Monday,” said Fapetu, who's getting a master's degree in business management at the Charlotte campus of Montreat College.
On those last-minute Sundays, the library may make all the difference between a good grade and one you'd rather not bring home to dad.
