Warsaw Community Public Library Director Heather Barron addresses the library’s Board of Trustees during a past meeting. InkFreeNews photo by Liz Shepherd.

By Jackie Gorski
Times-Union

WARSAW — Warsaw Library Director Heather Barron told the Board of Trustees Monday, Sept. 9, the feasibility study to determine if the library should be renovated or relocated is underway.

In June, the board approved MKM Architecture + Design to do a feasibility study to evaluate the library’s current facility and a potential new location. The study will look at if the current building should be renovated or if the library should be moved to a new area.

Monday, Barron said the idea of relocating to the Marsh building was explored and it was recommended the library not do that because the location would not be able to hold the library.

President Chris Merrill also said they have to face the fact the current library building is getting older and they can only expand so much.

During the feasibility study, library staff will gather community input about renovating or relocating the library. Merrill said it’s important the library gets frank responses through the feasibility study from community members.

Barron also said patrons’ needs have changed and the way the library served patrons in 1998 is different than how the library serves patrons now.

The board also held a public meeting for the library’s 2025 budget.

The total budget is $4,392,900. The rainy day fund is $100,000. The general fund is $4,292,900.

There were no public comments.

The budget will be adopted at 4 p.m. Oct. 21.

Later in the meeting, Barron said the library served a record number of people this past month at 48,6000. She said the books are staying, but some things are being phased out like CDs and movies. She said numbers for patrons taking out movies aren’t where they used to be.

Board Secretary Jill Beehler asked how many times an eBook can be checked out before it disappears.

Barron said there’s some discrepancy in how many times an eBook can be taken out before the library’s licensure for the book disappears.

Merrill said once the eBook is produced, it’s all about licensure. Barron agreed. Merrill said he thinks the issue about consistency with licensure with eBooks and how much usage libraries have with eBooks will get better with time.

In other business, the board:

• Learned there were two septic lines broken.

• Learned there was an electrical shortage to some of the keypads for rooms that require keycards to enter. It will cost $2,000 to repair it.

• Was walked through the library’s new website by Barron.