Our tax dollars pay for many great library services, but the library has to be open for us to use them.
Despite concerns from residents, at its May meeting, the Elmwood Park Public Library Board voted to cut hours effective June 1, closing at 8 PM Monday through Thursday and 6 PM on Friday instead of 9 PM.
Nobody in the community asked for this and the library admin admits there is no financial need. The library’s strategic plan called for extending hours to improve accessibility. Instead, they cut them.
Our library now has shorter hours than River Forest, Norridge/Harwood Heights, Oak Park, Forest Park, Des Plaines, Park Ridge, and Stone Park/Northlake among many others. These changes take the library from 72 to 65 open hours per week, a 10% reduction in access. Elmwood Park residents deserve better.
Please sign this petition and urge the library to restore evening hours.
Library admin states that the staff hours will be redirected to peak daytime hours, so these cuts aren’t actually saving any money. There has been no evidence provided that daytime hours need more resources.
In FY2026, the library irresponsibly spent nearly $62,000 on attorney fees, 440% over budget. They are not fiscally responsible where it counts.
For working people and students, evening hours are the only time library access is realistic. If you finish work at 5 PM, get home around 6 PM, and wrap up dinner by 7 PM, you now have less than an hour to get to the library before it closes. That is not enough time.
What are we losing?
An accessible, free venue for community meetings, study groups, and events at times when many people are actually available.
A quiet place for students to study, do school work, and meet for group projects in the evening.
Weekday access for people working standard business hours.
A safe place for teens to hang out on weeknights.
The ability to print, fax, or scan later in the evening.
Access to library books, movies, and other materials.
Evening Programs with convenient start times, which now have to start during earlier dinner hours to end by 8PM.
The data used to justify the decision is far from convincing. Library admin only counted staff interactions, ignoring checkouts and visitors that come in to study, use a room or computer, browse, or work quietly. The community input they used consisted of leading surveys with low response, ignoring dissenting voices that addressed the Board directly.
Admitting that there was not enough data to base this decision on, the library recently purchased a $4,000 door counter to measure visitor traffic. However, they made this purchase AFTER voting to cut the library hours.
Sign this petition to tell the Elmwood Park Library Board:
Collect a full year of real visitor data, hold genuine community input sessions in multiple languages, and restore the hours our community depends on.
