Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she would look to add Sunday hours at branch libraries across Chicago before the end of the year.

Increasing the amount of time libraries are open each week would be a stark departure for Lightfoot from predecessor Rahm Emanuel’s move to cut library hours shortly after he took office in 2011. Lightfoot’s wife is a former longtime Chicago Public Library official, and her mayoral candidacy got a big early financial boost from a former library commissioner.

Lightfoot gave no specifics on Monday about how much the increased hours would cost or where she would find the money in the cash-strapped city’s budget to keep open the 77 branch libraries on Sundays. But she framed the proposal as an important move to improve the lives of residents. Currently, only four regional Chicago libraries have Sunday hours.

“We’re going to provide more resources so that our libraries can continue to grow, so that we can expand our hours, because it’s important for us to be present and visible for our residents, and the libraries are really ground zero for what’s good about Chicago,” Lightfoot said.

“I think it’s important for us to be able to expand hours on Sundays,” Lightfoot said when asked for specifics.

As an example of the impact it would have, she said members of Chicago’s Orthodox Jewish community have mentioned to her that they could use the libraries on Sundays, while their religious observances for the Saturday sabbath make going to the library then impossible.

“I don’t have an exact dollar number for you, but it’s something we’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Lightfoot said.

“For sure by (2020), and we’re going to see what we can do to get things up and running this year,” she said. “For what benefit it brings, it’s a relatively modest investment.”

New Library Commissioner Andrea Telli was on hand with Lightfoot at the McKinley Park Library when the mayor mentioned her plan. Telli said it might be possible to open the branch libraries from 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. “I would really need to look at the budget implications we would have for it,” Telli said.

Telli said the money would need to be found in the Chicago Public Library’s operating budget.

Lightfoot’s wife, Amy Eshleman, worked for the Chicago Public Library for nearly 20 years. As Eshleman looked on from the crowd Monday, Lightfoot got emotional while extolling the virtues of a robust library system. “She’s starting to cry, so she’s going to make me cry,” the mayor said.

Mary Dempsey, the longtime Chicago Public Library commissioner under Mayor Richard M. Daley, was a key early backer of Lightfoot’s mayoral candidacy. Dempsey contributed $50,000 to the Lightfoot campaign shortly after Lightfoot announced she was running back in May 2018 when Emanuel was still saying he would seek a third term.

Dempsey resigned as library commissioner in early 2012 amid upheaval after Emanuel briefly ordered the city’s branch libraries closed on Mondays because of labor unrest.

For his 2012 budget, Emanuel proposed cutting branch library hours by eight each week and laying off hundreds of library employees to save $6.6 million. He eventually closed libraries on Mondays.

Emanuel restored Monday morning hours in fall 2012 when he hired back about 100 lower-wage library pages.

Lightfoot made her announcement about added hours as she kicked off the Chicago Public Library’s annual slate of summer programs meant to give kids something else to do while school is out and to help fight the “summer slide” of children falling behind academically between school years.

For kids age 13 and under, branch libraries will offer story times, science experiments, concerts, craft days, and more through Aug. 17, according to Lightfoot’s office.

Older kids can work on their digital skills in the library system’s YOUmedia centers, according to Lightfoot’s office.