The Moniteau County Library, formerly the Wood Place Library, will have new, expanded operating hours beginning Jan. 2.
The library is located at 501 S. Oak St. in California.
The library will be open 40 hours a week, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. It will be closed Saturdays and Sundays.
Voter approval for a Moniteau County Library District means the library in California will continue to serve the public. However, the immediate difficulty is the funding from the approved library tax - 12 cents per $100 in assessed valuation - will not be available until 2019.
But the Elia Wood Paegelow Foundation and the generosity of the people of the county appear to be sufficient to see the library through the next year. Some donations have been small, and several have been large.
"We have a very bright future ahead," Assistant Director Nancy Lewis said. "These donations are from people who see the value of a county library. Because of the donations, the library is able to open 40 hours a week with three full-time employees."
Since voters approved the county library district in November, the state library has worked to restore as many of the cooperative services as possible, as soon as possible.
Library staff hope to have a good summer reading program and expand it to the various schools in the county. In addition to California, the library's reading program will be active in the schools in Jamestown, High Point, Latham and Clarksburg.
The library district includes all of Moniteau County except for Tipton, which has its own city library district.
Re-establishing the book club and bringing back the Interlibrary Loan Program also are on the agenda.
The library also offers computer availability for services such as online searches, ebooks and videos. An anonymous donor has provided all new computers, which are on site. Library officials hope the new computer system will be up and running soon.
In the meantime, the transition of ownership from the Paegelow Foundation to the Moniteau County Library, along with other necessary changes, is taking place.
The vote for a county library district came after a 2015 lawsuit against the Moniteau County Library District and County Library Board by the city of Tipton and three taxpayers. While a 1997 vote appeared to have approved the district, the vote covered only six school districts, not the entire county; and a judge in February 2017 determined the library district had not been created legally.
The California library location closed March 1 and reopened in May with limited hours, funded by the Elia Wood Pagelow Foundation.