{"id":381535,"date":"2026-08-26T11:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T11:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381535\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T11:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T11:24:11","slug":"orlando-maitland-libraries-expand-amid-rising-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381535\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando, Maitland libraries expand amid rising costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Libraries in Central Florida are expanding to meet growing demand, with major projects underway in both downtown Orlando and Maitland.<\/p>\n<p>The downtown Orlando Public Library location is getting a $21 million first-floor expansion designed to give families and children more space and services.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, a new 20,000-square-foot library is being built in Maitland across the street from the current location.<\/p>\n<p>The investments come as libraries across the country face increasing operating costs, tighter budgets and growing expenses for digital materials.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ocls.org\/orlando-public-library-updates\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">new children\u2019s library<\/a> will be part of the downtown Orlando library&#8217;s\u00a0remodeling project.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Steve Powell, CEO and library director for the Orange County Library System, said the project is designed to help attract more families and children to the downtown area.<\/p>\n<p>Powell said that despite increasing costs, many Central Florida libraries continue to thrive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe one thing that I can say about Central Florida is libraries are growing here,&#8221; Powell said. &#8220;Winter Park got a new library five years ago. Maitland\u2019s got a new library on the books.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Maitland has already broken ground on its new library, which city officials say is needed to accommodate demand.<\/p>\n<p>The new building will replace the current library, which has been in use since 1907.<\/p>\n<p>While Central Florida is investing in new library space, other communities are facing difficult decisions about how to pay for library services.<\/p>\n<p>Many public libraries are dealing with rising operational costs, staff shortages and aging infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Altamonte Springs, for example, is considering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altamonte.org\/1406\/Proposed-Library-Transition-FAQs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">restructuring its library services<\/a> as the city looks for ways to reduce costs.<\/p>\n<p>Officials say that it takes 96% of the funds allocated for the city&#8217;s library just to keep the doors open.<\/p>\n<p>Another growing expense is digital content. Libraries often license e-books and audiobooks from publishers rather than owning them outright, and those licenses can expire after a certain number of years or checkouts.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that, Powell said digital content has become a major priority for Orange County libraries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe circulate two-and-a-half times more digital items than we do physical items,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n<p>That growing demand comes with a significant price tag.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur materials budget, this year and next year is $8.3 million allocated for each year,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n<p>For Central Florida libraries, the challenge is finding the money to keep up with changing demand while continuing to invest in the physical spaces where people use those services.<\/p>\n<p>The Downtown Orlando library renovations are scheduled to begin in September and are expected to take about 18 months.<\/p>\n<p>Construction on the new Maitland library started in April and is expected to be completed by next summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Libraries in Central Florida are expanding to meet growing demand, with major projects underway in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,274,28,115,1335,139,141,140,11881,278,835],"class_list":["post-381535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-community","tag-app-top-stories","tag-florida","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-randy-rauch","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}