KENT COUNTY, Mich. — Kent District Library is now closed for a fourth day in connection to a network outage.
The closure was first reported on Friday, April 24, with all of the library's 20 branches, at least as of Monday, April 27, listed online as closed.
Moving forward, the majority of branches will remain closed on Tuesday, but four will be open from Noon to 8 pm.
Those include:
- Cascade Township Branch
- Kentwood (Richard L. Root) Branch
- Plainfield Township Branch
- Wyoming Branch
Available services will include Wi-Fi, materials checkouts, regularly scheduled programs, and study rooms.
On their website, KDL says online services like Libby, hoopla, and Kanopy are still available.
However, Public PCs, printers/copiers, and gaming labs will not be available at the open locations.
The outage has impacted the free ticket registration for the "On the Same Page" ticket registration featuring author Kristin Hannah. Registration has now been pushed to May 4. The event date, June 9, has not changed.
On Monday, the library provided FOX 17 with a statement.
"Kent District Library is investigating a recently discovered ransomware event that is affecting the operability of certain systems and services. Upon discovery, we promptly initiated an investigation to determine the full nature and scope of the event."
"We are working diligently to investigate this matter with the assistance of third-party digital forensic and cybersecurity specialists and securely restore full functionality to our affected systems as quickly as possible."
"As our investigation into this matter is ongoing, we are unable to provide further details at this time."
In 2025, the library reported a total of 2,364,040 visits to its branches, with 139,261 people holding active library cards.
"I enjoy coming in," said Judy Grewe, who learned about the closure when she was met with locked doors at the library's Comstock Park branch.
"I enjoy the librarians, seeing other people," she said.
"I think the library offers a variety of activities for all ages," said Annette Burtt, a grandmother who routinely brings her grandchildren to the library.
“I think that's important for all ages and all members of our community."
