Harlan Public Library board members held their monthly meeting Tuesday at the United Methodist Church in Evarts to announce plans for library service.

According to Thelma Creech, residents of the Clover Fork area have been asking for a library in the area.

The library will be a Bookmobile that is being donated by the state and will be brought to Evarts.

Once the Bookmobile arrives, it will become a free-standing structure. The board plans to have the wheels taken off and have it underpinned using concrete block.

The board is currently looking at several pieces of land where the new library could be located.

Board members hope to have the library up and running some time in January.

They plan to open the library four hours a day and would like to have volunteers to help run the day-to-day operations for the first year.

"If the first year goes well, we might be able to look at hiring someone," said Creech.

In addition to the new library, the Harlan, Cumberland, Middlesboro and Corbin libraries have joined together to place their card catalog system on computer.

This allows the library to place bar codes on each book in the library.

Visitors will be able to come in and sit down and look up what they need on computers instead of having to open cabinet doors and thumb through cards.

Board members hope that this will make the library more modernized.

The Cumberland library is starting a banners program called "Kentucky Books."

Banners of different colors will be placed throughout the library so people with learning disabilities will be able to locate items easier. Each color will represent a different section of the library.

In other business:

-- Creech told the board that she is going to attend a conference in Louisville this month.

-- the board approved minutes from last meeting.

-- the board approved the financial report.