Each year the San Diego Public Library is visited nearly seven million times by its patrons, making the library system one of the most widely used services in the city of San Diego. And these visits are often for more than just books.
In fiscal year 2025, from July 2024 to June 2025, the libraries offered over 17,000 free programs serving approximately 400,000 participants. Nearly 420,000 of the library visits made during that time involved using library services such as computers with high-speed internet connecting San Diegans to workforce resources, job search support, online courses that expand professional skills, and community engagement opportunities.
The recent city budget cuts caused 20 of the 37 San Diego public libraries to close two days a week — Sundays and Mondays — which impacts patrons who use their libraries for creating opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities. Full access ensures that libraries continue to be ladders of opportunity, closing gaps in education, digital equity, and workforce readiness.
Public libraries at the heart of civic life
More than just a city service, our public libraries are a cornerstone of civic life — places where anyone, regardless of income, age, or background, can find belonging, resources, and growth. The San Diego Public Library embodies our civic pride, which emphasizes the value of connection and engagement. Libraries also serve as safe havens in emergencies, are trusted anchors in neighborhoods, and provide gathering places where San Diegans learn from and support one another.
In the face of this year’s budget cuts and schedule changes, we are reminded of the extraordinary resilience of the San Diego Public Library team under the leadership of Director Misty Jones. Staff are rising to meet these challenges head-on, ensuring that the library continues to be a place of opportunity, discovery, and inspiration.
At the Library Foundation SD, we believe in the library team and their ability to turn challenge into opportunity. Even with reduced hours, programs in youth academic preparedness, workforce development, technology access, and cultural enrichment remain vital threads in the fabric of our communities.
A system under strain
Yet, meeting this challenge is not without limits. With well over $50 million in deferred maintenance and long-standing underfunding, we have asked this library system to do more with less for far too long.
At the start of September, the library adjusted its Monday hours — a compromise born of a hard-fought budget season. The initial version of the budget would have shuttered all 37 branches on Sundays and Mondays.
While advocates secured the restoration of Monday hours at 17 locations, Sunday closures remain in effect. Every day a library location is closed, there are lost opportunities for students, job seekers, families, and neighbors who depend on their public library.
A modest investment — an outsized return
It doesn’t have to be this way. The annual cost of restoring 7‑day service across all branches is less than one-half of one percent of the city’s General Fund — a modest investment that benefits half of all San Diego households. For pennies on the dollar, the city’s elected officials could affirm a commitment to equity, civic pride, and service to the community while reaping extraordinary returns in education, workforce readiness, and public safety.
By prioritizing 7‑day service for all 37 branches in the 2027 fiscal yeaar, San Diego would declare to its residents: we believe in access, in opportunity, and in the strength of our communities.
Your voice matters
As a world-class city that values connection and resilience, San Diego must keep libraries open 37:7 — all 37 locations, seven days a week. Thanks to the persistent voices of public library advocates, we have already made progress in restoring hours. But the work is not finished. I invite all supporters of the freedom to read and the future of our city to:
- Speak to elected officials and let them know you support your library.
- Get involved in supporting public libraries by signing up for our advocacy newsletter.
Libraries are not luxuries. They are essential. They are who we are as a city. Together, let’s ensure San Diego’s libraries remain open and strong — 37 San Diego Public Library branches, open 7 days a week.
Patrick E. Stewart is CEO of the Library Foundation SD.
