Commentary: Think before closing off libraries on Sundays

Literacy experts have established the notion and proved the fact that literacy skills are positively correlated with easy access to a library.

USC professor Stephen Krashen and other researchers have found unequivocally that the presence and accessibility of a library is consistently aligned with higher reading scores among students. Access, whether it’s in the form of a well-stocked and professionally staffed school library or a well-staffed and state-of-the-art public library, is the primary variable here. Curious minds must have a multitude of resources through which to find satisfaction and enlightenment. Libraries provide such resources.

Books, e-books, computers and Internet access, newspapers, magazines, performances, presentations and discussion groups are all part and potential of a library environment. Whether it’s a romance novelist talking about her latest bodice ripper or a children’s story time hour, libraries are the place that can provide the space for such engagement and enrichment.

But, subsequent to the Great Recession and following some draconian cuts in the municipal government, the city of Huntington Beach eliminated Sunday hours at the Central Library, with no Sunday hours provided at any of the city’s four branch library locations either.

This is a sorry situation. Sunday typically is a family day, a day of outings and reflection and a time for a multitude of personal pursuits. Importantly, Sunday is when many people have the time for literary and cultural pleasures. Not having the city’s public library open on Sundays limits the public’s access to the library and therefore limits the potential for sustaining and improving the literacy of our community.

The official moniker for the Huntington Beach Library is Huntington Beach Library and Cultural Center. Such a center should not have one of its limbs of time amputated by cutting off Sunday access. For the sake of our city’s literary and cultural soul, it’s past time to restore Sunday hours to our central library.

BEN MILES is a trustee on the Huntington Beach Library board.