When it opened last year, the 88,000-square-foot indoor tennis facility at Warren County’s Buchanon Park was billed as a multi-use center that would accommodate a variety of sports.

Now the balls, bats and rackets being used at the facility will share space with books, games and videos, giving new meaning to that multi-use moniker.

With approval last week from Warren Fiscal Court of a 24-month usage agreement, the Warren County Public Library will soon set up a satellite location at the tennis center.

“When we built the tennis facility, we tried to have multi-use components,” said Chris Kummer, the county’s parks and recreation director. “We had been working with the library on various programs, so we felt it was a good strategic move to have a satellite branch in a growing area of the county.”

The agreement gives the library half the space in the tennis center’s large meeting room, which will be divided by an “accordion” wall to create two rooms of about 960 square feet each.

Warren County Public Library Director Lisa Rice calls the shared-space agreement a “perfect marriage” that will allow the tennis facility to “meet the needs of adults and children in the area.”

Rice expects the satellite branch to be open this summer and be stocked with about 10,000 books and other items. She said the main emphasis will be on books for children and young adults, but she expects to have a collection of popular fiction for adults as well.

Library patrons will be able to check out laptop computers for use at the site, and Rice said items not available at the satellite location can be put on hold until they can be procured from the library’s other branches.

While a departure from the norm for the county parks department, creation of this new satellite location continues a strategy that the library has had in place for a while.

“Over the last decade we’ve laid out a plan to serve as many people as possible,” Rice said.

That plan has led to opening satellite locations at the Boys and Girls Club, the Parker-Bennett Community Center and The Foundry Christian Community Center.

“The numbers aren’t huge (at the three previous satellite locations), but we’re serving children who might not otherwise have access to the library’s services,” Rice said. “It’s a cost-effective way to do it.”

Rice said the library also plans to open a satellite location in the new headquarters for the HOTEL INC nonprofit on Boatlanding Road.

Opening a satellite branch at Buchanon Park grew out of previous partnerships with the county parks department, Rice said.

The library has been a partner in the seasonal ice rink at the SoKY Marketplace and in the “Rec on the Run” program administered by the county and city of Bowling Green parks departments.

“It really is a great partnership,” Rice said. “The parks department and the library go well together.”

With the southern end of the county along Nashville Road experiencing rapid growth, Rice said Buchanon Park was “the most logical place” for a new satellite location.

“This one will really be a convenience for the people who live in that area,” she said.

And it won’t be an inconvenience for the indoor tennis facility, Kummer said.

“This addition won’t interfere with the tennis or multi-sport mission of the facility,” he said. “The library will be able to serve its constituents, and we can still conduct birthday parties and other events in the other part of that room.”

Rice said she hasn’t yet determined the hours of operation for the Buchanon Park library, but she said the hours will be limited initially “until we can build up an audience.”

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