Hingham Public Library to reopen on Sundays

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

Hingham Public Library will reopen its doors on Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m., starting this Sunday, library directors announced today.

The decision was made after the Board of Library Trustees announced a $10,000 grant from an anonymous donor through the Rhode Island Foundation, which will fund the library’s extended hours.

According to Library Director Dennis Corcoran, the library will also use budgeted municipal funds to supplement the grant to extend the Sunday schedule into late May.

“I am deeply grateful to our donor and to the Rhode Island Foundation for providing the incentive once again to offer Sundays to our patrons,” Corcoran said.

Library Board president Charles Abbot agreed that the impact from the grant will be huge.

“Our public has missed Sunday hours and will appreciate the opportunity to enjoy the Library with their families and friends on a day when they may have little more leisure than at other times during the week,” he said.

The library has already pulled together scheduling for the Sunday openings with the little notice they’ve had.

"It's been one of those things that just happened at the last moment,'' Corcoran said. "We'll be going right into it this Sunday"

The library hasn't been been open on Sundays since last May. Last year, a combination of funding from the town and the foundation had kept the library open on Sundays from Martin Luther King Jr. Day through May.

"This schedule is as close as we could get to that. We're a little later getting started. And we'll run right through May 20," Corcoran said.