MONROE — The director of MidPointe Library System, which has three Butler County branches, said she’s a “strong proponent” of expanding into Monroe.

Anita Carroll, director of the library system, said the board has been considering adding another branch for months, and on Tuesday night, she made an “educational and teaching” presentation before Monroe City Council.

Carroll said the library’s board “recognizes the need” for a library in Monroe. There are three libraries in the system: Middletown, Trenton and West Chester, and they serve customers throughout the region, Carroll said.

When looking at a locator map, Carroll said there’s a void in Monroe, which she said is “physically far” from the three locations.

The library recently conducted a survey in the Monroe area where 97 percent of the participants said they own a MidPointe library card, and 85.7 percent said they visit the West Chester branch, Carroll said.

Carroll said a possible location would be the vacant Monroe IGA building, 601 S. Main St., which closed on Oct. 31, 2009. She was attracted to the building because of its central location, its age and appropriate lay-out, which is conducive to a library.

While no architect has been hired, Carroll said the building would be “not expensive to make it work.”

She doesn’t believe a fourth location in Monroe would detour patrons from using the other branches. She believes Monroe’s population of 12,442, according to the 2010 census, is large enough to support a library.

Bob Kelley, the city’s vice-mayor, said he was excited about a possible new library branch opening, but he’s also worried about the city’s lending library that opened about a year ago. He hopes the two facilities could co-exist. That library, he said, was funded through grants and matching money, and opened on East Avenue in a former dialysis center.

“It’s a great space and I don’t want to see that go to waste,” Kelley said.

Following Carroll’s presentation, Kelley said he heard “nothing to discourage him; all good things.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.