There is evidence of water penetration and damage on the library's western wall.

In recent years, the library has not only added to the book collection.  It has also added computers for staff and the public, an active collection of books on tape and videotapes, and large print books.  There is no space for additional shelving.

There is no space for additional computers, except by removing reader seats or book shelves.  Thee are no computers in the children's room.

There is no staff service desk in the basement.

There is limited electric service, and a correspondingly limited number of electric outlets.  (The computer room has been recently wired.)

There is no separate meeting room.  Each time a story hour or an adult program takes place in the open, the program is subject to interruptions and distractions and the space and materials are not available to the public.  This limits the number of programs and means that each program or meeting held is actually a barrier to use by other patrons as well as a source of noise.

Staff work space consists of the space behind the Circulation Desk and a small office that serves as the librarian’s office, workroom, lunchroom, and storage.   There is no place for a patron to ask a confidential question or transact private business with a member of the library staff.  There is no public rest room, since the only rest room opens into the Librarian’s office.

The staircase to the basement from the vestibule is not visible from the Circulation Desk.  This is a security liability.

There is only one table for four for adult patrons.  There is no space for quiet study, tutoring or group study.

To put it another way, the Hillsdale Library is accommodating all of its operations (including over 20,296 circulations to 1,844 borrowers, who may represent many more in a household) and public services and housing all of its resources in space equivalent to that of a small one-story house plus basement or a bit less than one modern school classroom plus basement.  It should be noted that the purchase price of 20,296 items by citizens at even a modest average of $25 per item, would mean a private expenditure of at least $507,400 per year by residents, or $77.64 per capita.  This is quite apart from the value of other library services, such as reference service, computer instruction, interlibrary loan, children's programming, and Internet access.

For a 2002 population of 6,535, 2,120 gross square feet works out to be 0.32 square feet per capita.  It means that the 1,060 square feet of purpose-built space (main floor, accessible) represents a mere 0.16 square feet per capita.  Half of the Hillsdale Library's building is retrofitted basement space, not 'prime space' and not built for the purposes for which it is being used.

There are other simple ways to analyze the essential problem.  A national standard for public libraries published back in 1960 by the American Library Association called for 0.7 square feet per capita.  This was forty-two years ago, before handicapped access requirements, the proliferation of computers, videotapes and books-on-tape, meeting and conference rooms and the information explosion in general.  More usually since the 1990's, the expectation has been that a small public library building will offer between 1.25 and 3 square feet per capita in its service population, depending on collection sizes and meeting room spaces.  For the Hillsdale/Copake, Ancram area today (6,535 people), this would be a library building of between 8,168 square feet and 19,605 square feet.

In classic library planning, the rule is to plan a library facility to serve the community for twenty years into the future, in this case to the year 2022.  In the absence of a population projection based on information from the 2000 census, we will assume that the 2000 population of 6,535 will be nearing 7,000 by 2022.  It is also to be noted that telecommuting may be taking a larger role in the lives of some area residents and that the library needs to maintain and to lay claim to its larger role as a community center for information and recreation as well as an important resource for children, particularly for young preschool children.