KAYSVILLE -- The city's library is an island, the only independent library in Davis County.
But city leaders would like to change that and eventually negotiate a joint use agreement with the Davis County Library System. They'd also like to expand their busy library's floor space soon.Stephen Whitesides, the councilman over the library, said the city's library board is reviewing its future plans to see what niche or specialty it could fill among Davis County libraries.
"We've always had a strong children's literature department," he said.
Whitesides said the county library system is reluctant to just let Kaysville have a reciprocal use agreement because its libraries -- the Central Davis Branch in Layton in particular -- are already overcrowded. County officials fear the usage could be one-sided, with Kaysville residents jamming the already packed facilities and not many outsiders (except residents of nearby Fruit Heights) using Kaysville's library in return.
But if Kaysville's library had a specialty, usage could be more even.
"We'd hope we get as many people as we send," Whitesides said, explaining the agreement to be worked out between the city and county's library boards is a delicate matter.
Currently, Kaysville residents who want to use the Davis County Library System must pay a $25 annual fee. The future, hoped for agreement, could make it a no-cost sharing situation.
For example, Davis County residents can already obtain a free use card for the Weber County Library System, and the reverse is also true. It's only Kaysville residents who are the outsiders.
Whitesides said Kaysville considered joining the county library system years ago but would have lost its own branch library in that process. At that time, area population was such that the Kaysville library wasn't needed and would have been closed. Layton almost dropped out of the county library system at the same time but stayed when it managed to get its own central branch library building.
The City Council needs to address future expansion plans for the Kaysville library in the near future, too, according to Whitesides. The library is currently housed in the former City Hall.
"We're running out of space," he said. "There's almost no more room to put new materials."
The city has $650,000 available to purchase new materials but doesn't have the space for them. The money came from a land donation a Kaysville family made and designated only for new-material purchases.
The council reviewed its master plan for the City Hall block briefly last year, and one possibility is to use the current library as an extension to the city offices and construct a new library nearby. As the city's population grows, City Hall is also facing a future space crunch.