Opponents of the Broadway site say that while it is the geographic center of the city, Central Square is the heart of the city.

"The purpose of a library is for education and research and learning, but it's also a center of activity for community," Councillor Braude says. "That's why it should be in what is really the center of the community and not just the geographic center, which is accessible to far too few people."

And at the center of four major Cambridge neighborhoods, proponents say a Central Square site will simply draw larger crowds.

"[The Central Square site] is going to be open to a lot more people," says Councillor Marjorie C. Decker.

Central Square's proponents say that creating a new facility from scratch would be better than simply adding on to an outdated building.

But this accessibility and creativity would come at a cost. The Central Square site is projected to cost nearly $11 million more than expanding the Broadway site. The current price tag for the Broadway site is $30 million.

But Braude says that the cost is negligible.

"When spread out over the hundred year life span of the building, a few million dollars is a reasonable price to pay for doing the right thing," he says.

Building Tension

Concerns about each of the sites have grown beyond more than merely the locations.

In the last two months, as the council tries to fulfill promises to select a library site before the end of the year, tempers have flared and meetings have become heated.

Temperatures rose at a joint meeting the City Council held last Thursday with school committee members and school district administrators.

In three-and-a-half feisty hours of spirited back and forth debate, school officials raised concerns about the disruption that construction so close to CRLS would cause.

The library would take two or three years to build and would involve heavy construction that could distract students in classrooms with noise and obstructions on the campus grounds.

"Construction is going to be difficult on teachers and on students," Decker says. "Those concerns are real."

But city officials have committed to consult school committee members and high school administrators throughout the planning process and pledged to minimize construction noise.