The Albert Lea city council will consider hiring an architecture firm to complete a study on cost, design and schematics for the building of a new library on North Broadway next to the Civic Theatre Tuesday.

The city library has become more and more popular over the past few years, due to this, the space seems to shrink

each year, according to Lori Barkema, the library director.

&uot;We’ve quadrupled the use of our building,&uot; Barkema said. &uot;That huge increase demands increased services and it’s put a strain on our space. There’s no place for people to sit, no quiet place for them to study, and no meeting rooms available. We are very limited in to what we can provide for people because of the space.&uot;

Barkema said the library has been looking to expand for a few years, but hasn’t been able to get anything done on it. Last year, the library board recommended that the city budget $25,000 to put toward the study.

City Manager Paul Sparks said that although the city and state are facing hard financial times, the money was specifically budgeted for the study.

Sparks said that despite the financial situation, it might be a better time to plan for when the city and state budgets are in better shape, and projects like this can be afforded.

The study will be done by Meyer, Shearer and Rockcastle. The firm is nationally known and was considered for the Minneapolis library. They also designed the Austin library.

Both Sparks and Barkema stressed that the study is by no means a guarantee of construction.

&uot;I want to caution people that this is just a pre-design,&uot; Barkema said. &uot;This doesn’t mean we proabably

aren’t going to start building anything in 2004 or even 2005.&uot;

While the Vault building and the soon to be old Wal-Mart building have been discussed as possibilities, Barkema said neither would fit the plan for the city library.

Sparks agreed, saying that the city, needs to invest in downtown to attract others to invest downtown. Barkema also said that the Vault wouldn’t work because it would cost millions of dollars to renovate for use and it would not be practical for a library with four different floors.

Barkema said the lake view space, which the city owns, would be best.

&uot;It would be like a living room, community space for the public,&uot; she said. &uot;The best locations should be reserved for the public.&uot;