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Pleasanton residents had mixed feelings about this week’s announcement confirming the library’s reduced hours and services set to go into effect next month to help the city balance its budget.
Mary O’Neill, a Pleasanton resident, said that while she won’t be as affected by the hours given that all of her kids are grown up, she thinks the schedule change will particularly impact students the most once school starts.Â
“It’s such a great service — to the community, to the kids, to the people — to have the library, so it’s a shame that that had to be cut,” O’Neill told the Weekly on Tuesday. “I think the kids are going to suffer … it’s a great study hall for them.”
Starting on Aug. 4, the Pleasanton Public Library downtown will transition to a new weekly schedule which will reduce the overall hours of operation per week from 62 hours to 48 hours, including no longer opening on Sundays. The cutbacks are among several major changes to the library that resulted from citywide budget reductions.
“Reducing hours at the Pleasanton Library was not an easy decision,” Pleasanton Mayor Jack Balch said in a statement to the Weekly. “I fully understand the community’s love for our library, and I’ve clearly heard the concerns, especially regarding the closure on Sundays, which many students and families have voiced.”
According to a newsletter released by the city Monday afternoon, the library’s new hours of operation will be: open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays; 1-9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays; and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The facility will be closed on Sundays — a move which had been previously been criticized by many residents.
“We know Sunday was a valued day for many,” Balch said. “This isn’t a permanent decision, we’ll continue to monitor usage and explore all options as our budget situation improves. The library remains a cornerstone of our community, and I’m committed to ensuring it continues to serve Pleasanton well.”
The cuts to the city’s Library and Recreation Department are just one piece of the city’s recently adopted, two-year Operating Budget.
Specifically for the next two years, the city is facing a budget shortfall of about $10 million to $12 million, which is why staff have been working this past year to find ways to make cuts across all of the city’s departments and services, including the library.
“This change is part of a series of citywide budget adjustments adopted for the upcoming fiscal year, designed to address Pleasanton’s current fiscal challenges and safeguard the city’s long-term financial stability,” according to the city.
The city spent much of the year obtaining community input, holding budget workshops and drafting the budget, which the City Council adopted on June 17 after months of reviewing and refining the specifics of the reductions to various city departments.
The Library and Recreation Department — which makes up just under 10% of the city’s expenditures — was hit the hardest with reductions.
According to the adopted two-year budget, the library department will see a $1.6 million reduction during the current fiscal year and a $1.7 million reduction during the 2026-27 fiscal year.
According to the city, updating the library’s hours was not an easy task and staff recognize the schedule change will affect individuals and families.
“As we developed the new schedule, our top priority was to balance the needs of library users with the constraints of reduced funding — all while continuing to deliver essential services and quality programming,” the city stated in its newsletter.
Monday’s announcement regarding the library hours follows months of those budget discussions and council meetings where dozens of Pleasanton students and community members voiced their concerns at the prospect of closing the library on Sundays and earlier throughout the week — many teenagers said the late hours and extra day open on Sunday benefited their busy schedules.Â
Arjun Chopra, a Pleasanton Middle School student who lives down the street from the library, told the Weekly the library has always been more than just a place to read or check out books with his dad growing up. It’s also a place that offers other valuable resources such as printing — especially if his printer at home jams late at night.
“The library is always open for that,” Chopra said.
Balch said the library’s reduction from 62 to 48 hours per week ultimately reflects the “tough financial reality our city is facing” — but added that the city worked to ensure it maintained its core services, despite the budget cuts.
“Our goal has been to preserve as much public access as possible while prioritizing essential services and aligning with available funding,” the mayor said. “City staff worked closely with our employee association, analyzed usage data and focused on maintaining high-traffic hours and core programs.”
According to the city, staff considered several factors which helped guide them in the creation of the new schedule. One of those factors included an analysis of library usage patterns and visitor trends so that the city could ensure a mix of morning, evening and weekend hours to “serve a variety of needs”.
Other factors in developing the new schedule included “staffing capacity under the revised budget and the need to keep to consistent 8-hour days to maintain operational efficiency and service quality.”
“With nearly 300,000 visits to the Pleasanton Library each year, we recognize just how vital this space is to our community,” Library and recreation director Heidi Murphy said in a statement to the Weekly.Â
“These new hours reflect a careful compromise — one that allows us to maintain broad access to essential library services while adapting to current budget realities,” Murphy said. “We used data, community needs, and staff capacity to ensure that the revised schedule continues to serve students, families, readers, researchers, and lifelong learners alike. Our commitment to quality programming and welcoming spaces remains as strong as ever.”
According to city communications manager Heather Tiernan, the city ended up choosing Sunday as the day the library would close for several reasons.
Factors included library patrons often using other regional libraries in Livermore and Dublin that are open on Sundays, the fact currently the Pleasanton Library is only open four hours on Sundays and the recreation administration being open Monday through Friday — closing the library during the week would have affected access to recreation services.
Other reasons included weekdays showing the highest average daily attendance, closing weekdays would have negatively impacted staff schedules and Saturdays having a higher attendance compared to Sundays.
Tiernan added that the library’s afterschool program runs Monday through Friday and that closing on a weekday would have negatively impacted families who rely on the library after school.
But the reduced hours are not the only major changes stemming from the recently adopted budget cuts.
In addition to the reduced hours, starting on Tuesday the library will reduce the maximum number of physical items that can be checked out at one time from 100 to 50 items.
“This change reflects a 50% reduction in the budget for new library materials and is intended to promote more equitable access to our collection,” according to a newsletter from the city on Monday.
The city will also no longer allow library users to place holds on items currently available on library shelves.
“Instead, we will move to a first-come, first-served model for checked-in materials, beginning July 15,” the city stated in the newsletter. “This ensures more immediate and fair access for all visitors.”
Other associated impacts from the library cuts include combining the library and recreation service desks; converting all adult sports to self-run programs; and reduced funding for future library materials — the library’s current book collection and materials will not be affected.
Pleasanton resident Amber Olsen, who visited the library on Tuesday along with five of her six kids, told the Weekly that while she understands the budget cuts need to happen due to the city’s fiscal challenges, the reduced hours are “kind of a bummer”.
She said while she doesn’t think the reduced hours will directly affect her kids — they usually go right after school ends — she does think the changes to the library’s hold policy and reduction of the maximum amount of items checked out will affect her family.
“The kids all have library cards but a lot of times I’ll just be like ‘oh just check it all out on mine’ but with six of us checking out books, a 50 book limit — especially when they’re all picture books — is going to be a scale back,” Olsen said.
“The ability to put books on hold will be a big deal too,” she added, explaining how convenient that has been at times during her busy days.
Olsen said she could especially see how the overall changes to the library could also increase the demand for digital resources, which the city is already committed to keeping despite the changes to the in-person hours.
The city stated that apart from maintaining high levels of service at the library, the library’s digital resources — electronic books, audiobooks, online newspapers, homework help, learning tools and more — remain available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Core library programs will also continue, including storytimes, Paws to Read, Booklegger, afterschool programming, and adult literacy services,” according to the city. “Updated program times will be published in August and begin in September.”
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