The North Shelby Public Library soon will be bringing more literary offerings to one of Shelby County’s newest communities.

The library will open a temporary branch at Mt Laurel April 10 to serve the town until volunteers raise enough money to build a permanent library for the community.

“It will be a temporary branch,” said Kate Etheredge, manager of the library’s Mt Laurel branch. “At least it will be until the Friends of the Mt Laurel Public Library raise enough to build the permanent building.”

The Friends of the Mt Laurel Library have been working for a few years to raise the funds necessary to build a new library facility on Mt Laurel’s Olmsted Street, Etheredge said.

Until the new library is built, the temporary library will be housed at 33 Olmsted St., in a building loaned to the library by EBSCO.

“EBSCO is donating the temporary location to us rent-free for a while,” Etheredge said. “We will be here two years at least, unless the new library is built before that.”

Etheredge said the one-room temporary location will fill an important gap for Mt Laurel and its surrounding areas until the permanent location is completed.

“Mt Laurel is a close-knit community, and having a library at the center of the town is an added benefit to those who live there,” Etheredge said. “Plus it’s an asset to the other communities around Mt Laurel to have a library at a more convenient place.”

After the temporary library opens April 10, it will be open 19 hours per week, will host story sessions every two weeks and will be the home of the Mt Laurel Book Club.