The tale of two Island libraries took a new twist this week when the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners awarded a grant to the West Tisbury library for building a new facility, but Edgartown did not make the cut and will receive no funding, at least for now.

Eight of the 27 towns that applied for grant money received awards, announced yesterday morning, including West Tisbury, which will receive $2.9 million, the full amount requested, for a library addition at its current location. Edgartown had applied for $5 million for a new facility at the old Edgartown School on Edgartown-West Tisbury Road. The town is currently on a wait list.

Towns that received funding now have six months to commit to a design and raise remaining monies for their projects.

Funding for the town libraries is coming from a $60 million fund designated by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2008; $27.4 million of that was awarded in the first round yesterday. It is not known when the second round of monies will be awarded. There are 15 towns on the wait list; Edgartown is fourth.

It was all jubilation in West Tisbury after the announcement as library trustee Dan Waters struggled to digest the news.

“I feel almost delirious,” Mr. Waters said Thursday morning. “I can’t believe it. I was so far into our plan B already, because you have to think that way, but we got exactly what we wanted. Everything is lining up perfectly.”

West Tisbury’s renovation and expansion is expected to cost $5.1 to $5.5 million, a number which will become more precise after a period of refinement to the plans. The project calls for an H-shaped design that would largely maintain the building’s current facade while doubling the building’s size from 6,031 square feet to over 13,000. The new building will feature a 70-person dedicated program room and two reading gardens, and will be the first town building to seek a LEED certification in energy efficiency. Doors to the new library could open as early as the spring of 2014. The West Tisbury library has the highest volume of use of any library on the Vineyard.

In the short term though, Mr. Waters said the library needs to raise 25 per cent of its share of the project by January and then ask for the remaining 25 per cent from the town at the annual town meeting in April.

The upshot of Thursday’s news though was that the project is moving forward.

“This means it’s really going to happen,” Mr. Waters said. “Cross your fingers, but every door we’ve pushed so far has opened for us — I just feel like this project is charmed in so many ways. It’s a vindication of all the hard work of the people in the community who supported us.”

In Edgartown, by contrast, the state’s decision was met with disappointment over what has amounted to six years of work for a new library. Library building design committee members said they remained hopeful they would make the second round of funding.

“We didn’t do too badly,” said library trustee and building committee member Carl Watt at a special meeting Thursday afternoon. “I think everybody that worked so hard on this application did a terrific job. It was a major effort . . . while it’s disappointing that we’re not in the first-round release, we’re high enough on the list [for the second].”

Celia Imrey, one of the architects for the project, said she too is optimistic.

“It’s important to know even though we didn’t get funding this time around, our application was approved and we are very high on the wait list,” Ms. Imrey told the Gazette yesterday. “I’m really pleased, the town should be pleased . . . this project has a good chance of being built.”

The expansion project has proceeded in fits and starts since 2005 and has struggled to settle on a location and price tag. An early plan that included marrying the Capt. Warren House property on North Water street with the current Carnegie building won more than $4 million in state grant money, but that plan was eventually scrapped when the price tag climbed too high, and the grant was lost. The current plan calls for relocating the library to the old school building on the West Tisbury Road. The town now plans to sell the Warren House and put the proceeds toward the new project.

Ms. Imrey said there was some question about whether the town’s forfeiture of grant money the first time around would color its chances this time.

But Mr. Waters offered some words of encouragement for Edgartown.

“As I understand it, the waiting list moves rather quickly,” he said. “They have an excellent project, a great team and their library needs to expand as badly as ours does. I wish them all the best. In the end other libraries may drop out. I feel their time will come.”

This story has been changed since it was first published to correct an inaccuracy.