After a multi-year hiatus owing to staffing and funding shortages, Philadelphia libraries reopened on Saturdays.
Nine Philadelphia libraries, including the Walnut Street West Library, which is situated at 201 South 40th St., directly on the edge of Penn’s campus, reopened for business on Saturday. On November 15, departing Mayor Jim Kenney and Free Library of Philadelphia President Kelly Richards made the announcement.
In 2018, the Free Library of Philadelphia was forced to close more than half of its branches on Saturdays due to a
lack of funding. Many of the libraries were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they reopened for Saturday hours months later.
Due to over 200 staff layoffs in 2020, the majority of branches are now only open four hours a day, a few days a week.
Since then, the system’s objective has been to increase staffing levels and gradually reopen more branches.
“The pandemic was pretty bad,” Richards told The Philadelphia Inquirer. However, as soon as we began advertising and holding job fairs after receiving funding, people expressed a desire to work at the library.
The library system received a 30% boost in funding last year with the goal of hiring 300 additional librarians.
Richards stated that she has a “optimistic” schedule for branch reopenings, hoping to resume Saturday hours at all 54 locations by January.
“On Saturday, all local library branches will be open. For the library, that’s a huge game changer, Richards told Billy Penn.
For people living in West Philadelphia, the Free Library at 40th has been referred to as a community centre. The library was the most popular branch in the neighbourhood of West Philadelphia in 2012. The West Philadelphia Free Library is open Monday through Tuesday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday, and closed on Sunday.
After scoring goals in regulation, Jack Hughes, Tyler Toffoli, and Luke Hughes in overtime, the New Jersey Devils defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 on Thursday night.
The Devils built up a 3-1 lead over the last five minutes of regulation play, and they quickly recovered to win the game in overtime.
With five minutes remaining, Sean Walker’s fourth goal cut the score to 3-2, giving Philly a chance. With 50.9
seconds remaining, Tyson Foerster tied the score, giving the Flyers their second power-play goal of the night after they had seven for the season going into the game.
When the other team scores first, the Flyers lose 0–10–1.
The Flyers, who were predicted to be among the worst teams in the NHL, have performed better than expected under second-year coach John Tortorella. They are currently fourth in the Metropolitan Division with 11 wins from 23 games. Their 11-1-0 record when they score first helped them establish that record; this season, the league winning percentage for teams that score first is trending at roughly 70% overall.
