By Rebecca HuvalThe Daily Northwestern

Eleven-year-old Laura Nordhem walked to the Evanston North Branch Public Library Monday night to do spelling homework. Laura said she walks there every day.

Behind her table, a poster of a girl surrounded by books reads, “Libraries are Forever!”

But the North Branch, at 2026 Central St., might not last forever if the Evanston City Council decides to cut the North and South branch libraries from the 2007-08 city budget. In Saturday’s budget meeting, aldermen debated the fates of the branches. The council has discussed closing the branches for more than five years.

Neal Ney, director of the Evanston Public Library, sent a report about the branches and the three new library positions proposed in the budget to the city manager last week. The city would add a full-time teen librarian, a full-time collection manager and a part-time children’s services assistant if the proposed budget passes.

Ney said if he had to choose between hiring new personnel or keeping the branch libraries, he would choose the employees.

“We’re substantially under-funded, and there are a lot of things we’re not doing a decent job of,” he said. “A lot more people in Evanston would benefit from better collection management and teen services than are ever likely to go through a door at one of the branches.”

The Main Library has more than 544,000 visits a year, according to his report. The North Branch has about 68,000 visits, and the South Branch has about 50,000.

The report also showed that Evanston’s library system has fewer employees per capita than other local suburbs. Evanston has .62 staff members per 1,000 residents while Skokie and Arlington Heights have about 1.96.

Marybeth Schroeder, president of the Library Board, said Evanston libraries are under-funded, but the city should not close the branches. Private donations fund 25 percent of the library’s costs, more than libraries of similar size, she said.

“Never should we be discussing cutting a dime from the library’s budget – it is insufficient,” Schroeder said. “We’ve had branches for years, and people are reliant on them.”

Some aldermen said they not only want to keep the branches but to add another when the city can afford it. Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd) said the city should build a West Side library.

“Library services fail to reach a significant sector of the population, particularly the population on the west side of town,” Jean-Baptiste said. “I’m looking to expand services to those people. Any new money we allocate we should look into those who need it the most.”

The city had a West Branch in 1975 at 1715 Simpson St. It closed in 1981 because too few residents visited the library, Ney said. Its annual circulation was less than the monthly circulation at the North Branch.

Denia Hester, librarian at Kingsley School, managed the West Branch from 1976 to its closing. She said the library didn’t have enough time to establish itself in the community. Many children visited the library, but few adults did. She said the library would have had more visits when those children grew up and continued to use the library.

Ney said the library had problems because it was not in a busy area. The South Branch has fewer visits for the same reason, he said.

But the North Branch is in an ideal location where residents can borrow books after dropping off dry cleaning or buying coffee, Ney said.

Patty Mitchell, 56, an Evanston pre-school teacher, said she went to the North Branch Monday night because she was running errands on Central Street. She said she used to come to the library with her sons, who are now in their 20s.

“It’s like a small-town library,” Mitchell said. “Everyone knows you, and they know what you read.”

Madeleine Quackenbush, 7, used her own library card to check out “Which Witch is Which” and “Too Much TV” while her two sisters played with the library’s toy horses and unicorns on the checkout counter. Above them hung pictures of a baby reading at the North Branch library and the same girl as a high school freshman reading there.

Madeleine’s mother, Allison, said the family lives on Hartrey Avenue and walks to the library once a week before dinner. She went to a neighbor’s party Sunday where the guests, including a North Branch librarian, complained about the council’s discussions of closing the branches.

Kimberly Goff, 32, a medical receptionist, read Vanity Fair at the library Monday afternoon because she was locked out of her house.

“It’s just something to do because I don’t have the money to go shopping,” she said. “If Evanston takes away the libraries, that’s not catering to their community.”

Reach Rebecca Huval at [email protected].