Starke County Public Library Expansion Project Suffers Delay

Sheila Urwiler

The Starke County Public Library expansion project is at a bit of a standstill, but Library Director Sheila Urwiler says they should be requesting bids come September. She says there was a bit of a mix-up last spring when they requested bids which put a bit of a delay on their plans, but she’s confident they’ll soon be back on track.

Urwiler says the library has been keeping busy, particularly with the Summer Reading Program which will come to a close on Saturday. She says they’re still looking for people to participate in the literacy program that they’ve been running, and she encourages anyone interested in participating in the program to call (574) 772-7323 or stop by any Starke County Library branch.

One thing the library has been dedicated to is increasing their collection of e-books, which Urwiler says has been going well. The biggest issue the library has run in to is the fact that they just don’t have a large enough collection to keep their readers satisfied. She says a number of people have been put on a waiting list while the library works on purchasing popular e-books, and even with the cooperation of other libraries, there are just not enough different titles and copies that are in high demand.

“Unfortunately, there’s a conception that e-books are cheaper than print books and that’s not always true,” Urwiler explained. “So our dollars don’t go as far as we would like them to, but I think as e-books continue to grow in popularity, I think that the market will demand that those prices come down.”

She says people have been responding well to their e-book collection, and they have not had any major problems with it besides a few glitches that have been worked out. Urwiler says people seem to really enjoy the e-books, and the library is working on growing that collection as much as they can.

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