December 16, 2020 THE Cebu City Library, more popularly known as the Rizal Library, was the first library in the country to operate 24 hours, seven days a week. Library clientele rose to 103,000 during its 24/7 operation (beginning March 18, 2018 under then mayor Tomas Osmeña), compared to 26,000 in the year 2017, or an increase of 296 percent. When Mayor Edgardo Labella assumed office on June 30, 2019, the library cut its round-the-clock schedule by half (from 8 a.m. to 12 midnight) but resumed the old hours on July 23 of that year. A good program deserves to be kept, Labella said. Since the quarantine was imposed and in-person classes were stopped, the Rizal library's number of visitors has dropped to about 50 persons a month.