The disadvantage of moving away from the population-based formula was that it would be harder to justify building a new library. It means that the only new library space for the foreseeable future will be the planned small extension to the Greerton Library.
Up until then, it had been assumed that Bethlehem would one day get a new library, with Welcome Bay also in contention.
The report said that although eBooks were now much the same price to buy as print books, they only incurred a $1 charge for cataloguing whereas processing a book cost $7.65 including plastic covers and labels. To help build the use of eBooks, the library will trial removing the $2 charge for a year.
Yesterday's meeting, which attracted a big gallery from the Friends of the Libraries, did not touch on the issue which galvanised the community last year - the threat to scrap the mobile library service.