As the Ames community continues to blossom, the Ames Public Library started planning for the future Thursday.

“The library we have now was constructed in 1985. It’s 20 years old and it’s cramped,” said Art Weeks, director of Ames Public Library.

Anders Dahlgren, president of Library Planning Associates, flew into Ames to report the findings of his space needs evaluation of the Ames Public Library.

The current library is approximately 50,000 square feet and Dahlgren suggested a full-service library in Ames should be around 94,000 square feet.

“A question that really gets at it [possible expansion] is: What kind of public services do we want this library to serve?” Dahlgren said.

The current library holds 163,000 volumes in its book collection.

Dahlgren said to meet the library service needs of the community, the library should plan to provide 275,000 volumes.

Dahlgren said there are four expansion options.

These options include adding on to the existing library, building a new library at a new site, building a new library on the current site or find an existing building to relocate the library.

“Expansion on the present site does not give us enough space,” Dahlgren said.

Dahlgren said an addition to the current site appears to be limited to a maximum build-out of around 70,000 to 75,000 square feet.

“New construction is what has been recommended,” Weeks said.

One form of new construction would be to tear down the current library site and build a brand new library in the same site that could offer 94,000 square feet.

“This option still doesn’t solve the parking problem,” Dahlgren said.

The other new construction option was to build a new library at a new site.

Dahlgren said this would be ideal, but issues would arise on what to do with the old building.

“There is going to be emotional attachment to the original building. We may be able to retain some of the historic parts,” Dahlgren said.

Dahlgren said there was an option of making a smaller branch library in another part of town, but he said he was very wary of that option.

The current plans for the future of the library are to include current space needs until 2030.

One of the concerns of the Ames Public Library Board was how to plan for future space when it is unclear what function public libraries will serve in the future.

Weeks said he remembered 20 years ago when they built the current library and there was no planned space for computers because the Internet wasn’t around.

“It’s hard to predict the future. We don’t know what lies ahead,” Weeks said.