The Brookfield Public Library Board last week received a 198-page building program detailing what it would like in a new library. Now all they have to do is find a place to build it and persuade the community to pay for it.

The building program was put together by the library’s consultant, Dr. Fred Schlipf, the former head of the Urbana library, and a building consultant to many libraries around the state. Schlipf has also been a library science professor at the University of Illinois.

“I think you have a chance to design a handsome, practical building,” Schlipf told the board after it voted unanimously to accept his building program.

Schlipf described the new library that he foresees as “high quality, but not lavish.”

Brookfield Library Director Kimberly Litland described the report as “roadmap for architects.”

Schlipf’s plan calls for a new library building that is 39,600 square feet, nearly three times the size of the current library, which is 13,500 square feet. However, the plan is approximately 20 percent smaller than the plan Schlipf proposed in a draft report last July.

According to Schlipf, a good rule of thumb for the size a library is two square feet per resident. Brookfield has a population of approximately 19,085, and it not expected to grow past 21,000 in the foreseeable future since the town is landlocked.

Schlipf suggested that a new library have approximately 80 parking spaces and that it would require a building site of about 60,000 square feet.

The library has been considering possible sites for a new library for more than a year. It initially targeted the intersection of Washington and Arden avenues in the Hollywood section of Brookfield, where it sought to purchase five homes which it planned to tear down to build a new library.

After buying one home, being ready to purchase another home and securing the right of first refusal on two other homes, the fifth homeowner refused to sell. The library board has been looking for other sites for the last six months.

Schlipf recommended that the board not select a final site until it hires an architect and received the architect’s input. The library board will hold a special meeting on April 19 to interview three or architectural firms and will then choose its architect, possibly at that meeting.

The library is known to have been seriously considering at least two possible sites for a new library. One possible site is near the intersection of Brookfield and McCormick Avenue near the village hall. Another is the vacant Church of the Nazarene property at 4301 Prairie Ave. near Jaycee/Ehlert Park on the south side of town.

Once the library board chooses an architect, a schematic design for the proposed new library will follow. Only then can a realistic cost estimate be made said Schlipf.

The LaGrange Public Library, completed last year, is 33,542 square feet and cost $10.7 million to build, according to Bridget Bittman, that library’s public relations coordinator.

The library would then need to pass a referendum to raise the money to build a new library. The tentative schedule in the building program anticipates trying to pass a referendum in April of 2009, although Litland said that schedule is mostly for illustrative purposes and it is too early to say when the library might seek to pass a referendum.

Schlipf’s report calls for a library with a book collection capacity of 100,000, compared to the current 71,400, and an audio visual collection capacity of 17,000, compared to the current 6,800.

It envisions two meeting rooms, one with a capacity of 125 people and the other with a capacity of 22. In the library’s current home, the large meeting room can only hold 31 people, while the small meeting room seats only 14.

Schlipf wrote his report after meeting with library staff, members of the volunteer library advisory committee and observing the library.

He describes the current library as too small, overcrowded, having no adequate space for young adults and a number of other problems.

“It is a nice building and has many good attributes, but it is just too small,” said Schlipf. “Every time I come in here, the place is just mobbed.”