The Scenic Regional Library branches had more than 325,000 visitors last year and with an aggressive $13.2 million building project that number could be even higher in years to come.Director Steve Campbell delivered the annual report on the system that serves patrons in Franklin, Gasconade and Warren counties to the Franklin County Commission on Tuesday.“People seem to think libraries are disappearing,” Campbell said. “Although they are plateauing, with the addition of digital resources there is a lot of room for growth.”He explained after some consolidation and a tax increase in 2015, all eight libraries in the system will benefit from the additional revenues.“This is the first full year since the tax increase, and we are distributing it in as many places as we can,” Campbell said. “We will be upgrading some of our existing locations or, in some cases, replacing them. Some of the spaces will be doubled or tripled in size. Of our $5 million in annual revenues, $1 million will go toward our buildings for the next 25 years.”Currently, $13.2 million is slated for physical upgrades and work is expected to begin as early as March.Campbell added the Pacific location will be expanding from 4,500 to 10,000 square feet.With branches in Hermann, New Haven, Owensville, Pacific, St. Clair, Sullivan, Union and Warren County, patrons will be seeing improvements across the board by the end of 2017 and all efforts are being made to use local contractors on the projects.CollectionBecause the desire to check out print books is still high, the library system maintains a print circulation of 450,567 items.But according to Campbell the future lies in the digital age and the system continues to expand its e-circulation up to 91,865 items, an increase of 83 percent since 2014.“Combine those with our traditional collection and you have over half a million items,” Campbell said. “We are also seeing a huge boom in Internet usage at the branches. A lot of kids are issued Chromebooks at school. If they don’t have Internet at home, they come to the library.”Last year, 58,556 people used system Internet and an additional 21,162 used the system’s wireless services, a 142 percent increase.Subscriptions to popular online databases like Ancestry.com and Chilton also allow patrons to do research reference work online instead of the library housing hundreds of cumbersome volumes.“We have increased our purchasing of new materials by $800,000 per year,” Campbell said. “We are getting rid of older stuff at the same time, so the quality of the collection is improving.”ServicesIn addition to the collections and patronage, the system also provides literacy outreach through its new bookmobile, books by mail program and visits to senior centers and nursing homes.The library system has also teamed with the health departments of the three counties it serves and has distributed 3,229 books to children who receive county services.Scenic Regional Library