Thousands of returned books have been stacking up on the floors of Chicago Public Library branches for months, with more than 110,000 items stuck in processing limbo as of late July. The backlog traces back to a shortage of the delivery drivers who ferry books between the system's 81 locations spanning all 77 community areas, a crunch that left some patrons waiting over a month for holds that once arrived within days.
The crisis became public when Chicago Public Library leadership acknowledged the weeks-long delays for patrons receiving holds at a board meeting in May, according to Block Club Chicago. At that point the system's delivery operation was down to just three drivers, out of the nine typically needed to keep more than 80 branches supplied with books.
A Driver Shortage Snowballs Into a Historic Backlog
The numbers kept climbing through the spring and early summer, per the outlet's reporting. More than 60,000 items were waiting to be scanned and processed in late May, and that pile swelled to nearly 130,000 items at its peak in late June. By early June, library records showed more than 24,000 patron-requested items had taken over 30 days to arrive, up sharply from roughly 8,400 items stuck that long in late April.
Even after the library added drivers, the backlog didn't vanish overnight, the report noted. Late July figures still showed more than 1,600 items taking over a month to reach patrons, and workers said they couldn't always determine where backlogged items were or when they would arrive. Returned items get labeled in transit once scanned, but workers reported that thousands of those in-transit items were actually sitting in piles at branches awaiting pickup rather than moving anywhere.
Bezazian and Harold Washington Feel the Squeeze
At the Bezazian library branch in Uptown, staff got creative with storage as returns piled up faster than delivery drivers could collect them. Emma Ramirez said workers found inventive ways to store thousands of returned books while waiting for pickup, and staff there rescanned and restacked every item into piles on the floor of the branch's community room. Ramirez added that the city does not appear to value library workers proportionally to the services they provide, per the same account.
Bezazian workers ultimately encouraged patrons to check out popular or newer titles directly from the backlogged piles rather than wait for the delivery system to catch up. Across town, the pressure was just as visible at the Harold Washington Library Center, the system's central processing hub, where staff reported that the upper dock, lower dock and third-floor workroom were overrun with incoming items.
Library staff recommended overtime at the Harold Washington docks to work through the pileup of returns, and internal emails indicated the backlog might not return to normal levels until September if that overtime was approved. Officials had told staff back in May to use their best judgment while handling delays and books awaiting return to the central hub.
Patrons and Workers Push Back
Frustration spread beyond library staff. Sharon Porta said the delays were baffling and that she hoped management had a plan to prevent the situation from happening again, and the delays reportedly pushed at least one patron to simply buy books from a store instead of waiting on a library hold.
Library staff recommended a temporary limit on the number of holds patrons could place to ease pressure on the system, but Chicago Public Library's top management denied the request. Patrick Molloy said in May that officials expected the delivery situation to improve by June, and the library did add drivers that month, bringing the fleet to six by late June, still three fewer than before the shortage began.
By the time those additional drivers were on routes, hold wait times had eased to roughly two to three weeks, though some routes reportedly ran every other day until a seventh driver returned. Bryan Araque said the system had made steady progress but that it would take time to return to normal circulation levels, and by July workers with enough items belonging to another branch were allowed to bypass the downtown processing hub entirely.
A Decade of Budget Cuts Behind the Backlog
The delivery meltdown didn't happen in isolation. Chicago Public Library has faced system-wide staffing shortages for more than a decade, dating back to cuts made under Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2012. Systemwide staffing fell by roughly 100 workers between 2020 and 2025, while police reports at library facilities nearly tripled over the same stretch, according to a report from AFSCME Council 31, the parent union representing Local 1215 library workers.
Those staffing pressures show up in budget documents, too. Chicago Public Library's proposed fiscal year 2026 budget called for eliminating 69 full-time equivalent positions, a 6.3% cut that followed a 50-position reduction in 2025 and amounts to a cumulative 10.3% decline in budgeted positions since 2023, according to the Better Government Association. Mayor Brandon Johnson's proposed 2026 budget also recommended cutting the library's acquisition budget for physical books and materials in half, from $10 million to $5 million, the same analysis found.
A 2018 audit by the Chicago Office of the Inspector General had already found that the library's staffing strategy failed to align branch personnel with community needs, recommending management involve staff and community members in restructuring decisions. As of April, the library employed 799 full-time staff and 287 part-time staff, according to the library's own facts and figures page. The system is led by Commissioner Chris Brown, who took office in 2021, and Board of Directors President Linda Johnson Rice, who has served since 2012.
The strain has coincided with a broader decline in library use this year. The system filled roughly 18% fewer holds through June than during the same period last year, and it logged about 300,000 fewer patron holds along with 10% fewer checkouts, renewals and downloads in the first six months of the year compared with the prior year, per the same account. Patron holds overall dropped roughly 8% during that stretch, even as the library had already imposed limits on digital Libby checkouts and holds back in May 2025 to manage demand. The pileup also arrives even as Hoodline reported in June that the library had expanded free digital access for cardholders, a reminder that the system's digital push has continued even as physical hold delivery struggled to keep pace.
