The Evanston Public Library board is pursuing an offer from a group of supporters to find and fund a temporary location for the South Branch, which is scheduled to close at the end of February.

“I think the people in the south deserve to have a branch kept there,” trustee Susan Newman said during a recent meeting, adding that the temporary branch location could be “an incredible opportunity to create, to experiment, to practice new types of service to the community.”

The group Evanston Public Library Friends recently proposed two options for keeping library services in the South Branch neighborhood. Library trustees selected the first option, which could see a temporary space house the South Branch’s current collection.

In the second option, the Friends would have found a storefront for their own use, integrating library services there.

Library trustees asked that the Friends work with library and city staff to hammer out the details of where the temporary branch would be located and how it would be staffed, as well as any liability issues. Friends president Ellen Newcomer previously said the group is willing to supplement staff at the temporary location with volunteers. Many of them have experience as librarians, she noted.

With the board choosing to pursue the first option, Friends members said they would explore opening a storefront for their own use on the west side of town.

Despite voting 7-0 to approve pursuing the group’s first option, board members were initially split over the choice. Trustee Donna Gerson said she and trustee Sharon Arceneaux preferred the second option because they saw it the more cautious and time-efficient decision.

“My concern is that there are unknowns, either financial or other responsibilities of the city, and that would slow things down,” she said.

Trustee Susan Stone said she preferred asking the group to reconsider its financial offer and direct funds to open a branch library on the west side of town instead of near the current South Branch location.

Yet trustee Gail Bush said continuity of public library service is understood in the library field to be of importance for the public.

“As much as possible, to have something that is continuous, if possible, that is optimal,” she said. “I feel that the first option is probably the most reminiscent of current service as possible while we go through this transition.”

While every trustee present expressed gratitude with the group’s offer, trustee Diane Allen-Jacobi, who was unable to attend the meeting, submitted a letter in which she urged board members to “let nothing derail or detract” their efforts to transition to a library fund model — one in which the board would have the ability to set the library’s budget and levy a tax for that budget.

She also said the board has no obligation to involve itself with the Friends’ or any unrelated corporation’s business decisions, and chastised the group for putting undue pressure on the board through an e-mail in which the group asked its members to attend the board’s meeting and request that the South Branch be maintained.

“The Friends are not committed to the community at large, but only with their already preconceived ideas of what and where they want it,” she wrote. “This attitude is a disservice to the community. I ask that the Friends join us in our planning efforts and stand by our side as we bring Evanston’s library system to a new era of equity and inclusiveness.”

Friends member Lori Keenan responded Thursday to Allen-Jacobi’s comments, saying the group’s offer to find a temporary South Branch location was made to enhance library services to the community as a whole. She said the group continues to work for the interests of group members as well as the community.

“It is puzzling to us how this offer could have been misconstrued by trustee Allen-Jacobi as a distraction, or worse,” Keenan said. “We don’t have a crystal ball and wouldn’t presume to know what the board’s ultimate plan will be. Our goal was merely to provide continued library services in the interim to fill the void left by the closing of South Branch.”