Northland Public Library may expand its bookmobile program and run it in-house.

The library in McCandless serves that town plus Bradford Woods, Franklin Park, Marshall and Ross. The bookmobile is a service contracted from the Allegheny County Library Association and makes weekly stops for one hour at Marshall Middle School in Marshall and for two hours at the Ross municipal building.

Sandra Collins, library director, said the library board was looking at ways to increase services. First, it considered opening a satellite.

"We serve 62 square miles ... and a population of approximately 80,000. Space in our building is going to continue to be a problem. One of the ways to add to that square footage would be to provide additional sites," she said.

A survey of library patrons indicated that they would like another building but they weren't enthusiastic about paying for it, Collins said.

"Now the question is, if there still is a desire for extended services but there isn't a desire on the part of the communities to spend more money from their budgets, then what do we do to get the bookmobile to expand the number of stops it makes and maybe the quantity of the material that is available?" said Dan DeMarco, library board secretary and a Ross commissioner.

One possibility discussed, DeMarco said, was for member municipalities to take over the administration of the bookmobile. Another was to seek more money from the county association, state or elsewhere. But, he said, expansion next year is unlikely because 2006 library budgets are coming up for a vote in the municipalities in the next two months.

"Right now, we're just putting together different scenarios, looking at where portions of our service are, where likely stops could be, looking at costs and usage statistics," Collins said.