Kathy Amrhein has seen the blueprints, so she knows the hopes for her library -- that it will relocate and grow.

But Ms. Amrhein, one of two employees at the Sharpsburg branch of the Laurie Ann West Memorial Library, also knows about the meeting last week at which several dozen people gathered to discuss alternatives. Because of financial pressures, the 10-year-old library might close.

"It's just really frustrating," said Ms. Amrhein, the branch library's manager.

A decision might not come for months, but the strategizing to save the library was renewed last week. At a roundtable discussion in Sharpsburg's borough headquarters, politicians and local library representatives acknowledged the library's greatest problem: its rent.

Until 2004, the library paid $1 in rent annually to the Fox Chapel Area School District, which owned the building. Then, the district sold the building, and rent skyrocketed to about $30,000 per year under the new owner.

"And Laurie Ann West has the fiscal responsibility," said Marilyn Jenkins, executive director of the Allegheny County Library Association. "They can't continue to operate a branch at a deficit."

So now, Sharpsburg's library and local politicians must resolve several uncertainties. When the association recently altered the formula used to distribute funding to its 44 member libraries, Laurie Ann West took a cut. Laurie Ann West will receive $161,000 in the upcoming year, $35,000 of which is earmarked for the Sharpsburg branch, Ms. Jenkins said.

If Sharpsburg, when relocating, breaks from its Laurie Ann West affiliation, it will be too small to qualify for such funding -- unless it finds a new affiliation.

State Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, helped identify space for a new Sharpsburg library in the basement of the borough-owned community center. The library could exist in the space rent-free.

"I'm very optimistic we'll succeed in maintaining this library," Mr. Ferlo said. "There's a cooperative spirit of everybody involved."

If the library survives and relocates, Mr. Ferlo said, it would likely expand its hours. In its current spot -- on the third floor of a building at 200 Linden Ave. -- the library remains open 20 hours per week, and never after 6 p.m.

The new spot, though, would present challenges: The library would move into a basement area now occupied by an abandoned swimming pool. A renovation will require about $350,000, Mr. Ferlo said -- possible through fund raising and state grants.

Despite the financial trouble, the Sharpsburg library has doubled its circulation since 2002. On the day of the meeting, the library broke its record for people -- 80 in four hours, Ms. Amrhein said.