The days of going to a neighborhood library on a weekday evening or on a Sunday may well be numbered.

Operating hours at D.C. neighborhood public libraries are likely to be cut starting in the fall, largely because of budget cuts prompted by the pandemic’s economic fallout but also due to new cleaning protocols that are likely to be implemented because of the pandemic itself.

Library officials say they’re not yet sure what hours might be on the chopping block, but confirm that some will have to be trimmed starting on Oct. 1, when fiscal 2021 starts. That could include scaling back from 12- to 8-hour days, and possibly scrapping Sunday service. In extreme cases, certain small libraries — where social distancing would be hard to maintain — would close altogether.

“While we expect to operate differently in [fiscal year 2021] due to the pandemic, we will continue to ensure D.C. residents across all eight wards have access to library programs and services,” said D.C. Public Library executive director Richard Reyes-Gavilan in an email.

Even as Mayor Muriel Bowser had to make more than $700 million in cuts to her proposed 2021 budget because of the city’s economic slowdown, she proposed a slight increase for the library system’s budget. Still, that increase is not expected to be enough to both maintain hours at neighborhood branches and successfully reopen the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, which is approaching the end of a $211 million modernization and is expected to be done this fall.

That alone would have caused a cut to operating hours at neighborhood branches, but those cuts are even more likely because of how the ongoing pandemic is expected to change library operations. A phased reopening of neighborhood libraries kicked off on Monday, with no more than 50 people per 1,000 square feet of space and no more than 50% usual capacity. Once D.C. reaches Phase Three of its reopening, the number of people allowed inside will increase.

But even as reopening proceeds, Reyes-Gavilan told the D.C. Council earlier this month that staff responsibilities are expected to change in order to address the need for more consistent cleaning and sanitizing of public spaces.

“The pandemic creates challenges that we are still just beginning to understand. We know there will be new staffing and operational needs related to safety and sanitation. Staff will need to take on new responsibilities, serving as greeters, ensuring all visitors wear masks, monitoring social distancing within public areas, and performing regular cleaning and sanitation of high-touch areas throughout the work day. Furthermore, traditional work such as collection maintenance will take longer as staff have been instructed to quarantine books for 72 hours prior to processing them,” he said.

The last time D.C. had to cut operating hours at neighborhood public libraries was in the wake of the Great Recession. (The MLK Library kept some Sunday hours.) It wasn’t until 2013 that Sunday hours and longer weekday hours returned to all libraries.