San Antonio Library officials announced that beginning March 31, library branches in the San Antonio Public Library system will add four additional public service hours to their schedules.

The expanded schedule will increase service hours from 60 a week to 64, or approximately 4,696 additional public service hours per year.

On Mondays, the Bazan, Collins Garden, Cortez, Johnston, Landa, Memorial, San Pedro and Westfall branches and the Tobin Library at Oakwell will open at 9 a.m. instead of 1 p.m. The Brook Hollow, Carver, Cody, Forest Hills, Great Northwest, Guerra, Igo, Las Palmas, Maverick, McCreless, Pan American, Semmes, and Thousand Oaks branches will all stay open an additional four hours on Thursday evenings, until 9 p.m.

The Bannwolf Library at Reagan High School also received additional staffing through the library’s contract with the Northeast Independent School District and has already begun opening an additional two hours per week during the school year. This branch will be open an additional four hours per week during summer vacation.

“We’re glad that we can offer extended service hours to the community, and appreciate the City Council’s approval of the library staffing plan submitted during the 2007-2008 budget cycle,” said Library Board Chair Jean Brady. “The funding, endorsed by City Manager Sheryl Sculley and appropriated by the City Council, allowed us to re-deploy our staff and expand our schedule.”

Library Director Ramiro Salazar also noted that throughout the past year, the library had been adding other service enhancements.

“Using technology to perform routine tasks frees up staff to provide direct customer assistance and has made it possible for us to increase our service hours,” Salazar said.

New technology implemented by the library includes an automated reservation system for public-access computers; alerting patrons via e-mail when materials they have requested are ready for check-out; automated telephone renewal for borrowed items; automatic e-mail notification of patrons when their materials are almost due; and printed receipts showing due dates, so that customers do not have to wait for borrowed items to be stamped.