Every day it is open, some 350 people walk through the door of the West Tisbury Public Library. The library draws patrons in droves, not just from West Tisbury but from other Island towns as well. It boasts the largest on-Island collection by more than 5,000 pieces, and had an annual circulation of 149,000, far more than that of its closest follower, the Vineyard Haven Public Library, with a circulation of 111,000.

The numbers go on and on; the popularity of the little library in the West Tisbury town center is indisputable. But one number in particular troubles the Friends of the Public Library. In terms of square footage, the building falls behind all Island libraries but Aquinnah.

In short, the West Tisbury library is bursting at the seams.

Last Thursday, town residents, library employees, trustees and friends gathered to discuss the problem — and potential solutions. “They are going to come back to haunt us,” said library trustee Dan Waters of the numbers. “Our town has outgrown its current library facility,” he told the group. He continued:

“West Tisbury has an amazing variety of demographics. The library tries to serve everybody.”

But that’s no easy task, considering the space limitations.

The library opened at its present location nearly 20 years ago, in 1993. Even then, private space for patrons and staff was limited. There was no space allotted for a community conference room or an employee break room. There is no office for library director Beth Kramer. “There’s really no escaping from public view if you work at the West Tisbury library,” said Mr. Waters. Staffers have no choice but to grab lunch right at the front desk. Librarians are forced to shelve children’s books out of reach to capitalize on space. Each room has at least three different uses. Arts and crafts projects, lecture events and private reading all take place in the same space.

Add computers and DVDs to the mix, and the space seems to get smaller by the day. And every time a new item comes in, be it a book, a magazine, or a DVD, another must be pulled from the shelves.

According to the trustees, the space crunch is severely limiting the library’s ability to serve its community.

The young adult section, for example, is too small to satisfy the level of interest. Preteens and teens are daily fixtures in the cramped section of the library that holds the tiny young adult collection, and while the number of young adult programs offered at the library is smaller than all other programs, attendance numbers are by far the highest.

So library trustees are about to embark on an expansion project. They hope to apply for a state grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners that could cover up to 60 per cent of the total project cost, currently estimated at some $5.6 million.

The West Tisbury Library Foundation plans to raise roughly $1.2 million, and the town will be asked to foot the balance of the bill, estimated between $1.3 and $1.5 million.

Mr. Waters said trustees hope to submit a letter of intent for grant funding by August, and then meet the fund-raising goal in time to bring a spending article to the April 2012 town meeting. On this time line, the project would be slated to break ground in 2013, exactly 20 years after the new library was unveiled.

“It’s going to take a while to digest this whole ball of yarn,” said Mr. Waters, adding that the various committees are still in the early stages of blocking out plans for the expansion. “The future of the library really is in your hands,” he said.