BATON ROUGE - The library secured a real estate company to help it find a location for a new south branch.

A spokesperson said Sperry Van Ness / Graham, Langlois & Legendre, LLC was hired to find a viable site somewhere in the southern part of East Baton Rouge for a new library. The hire was revealed at a library board of control meeting Thursday.

"This move will allow the process of selecting a site to move forward," Library Director Spencer Watts said in a statement.

Watts and other library officials said the southern area is under served.

"We need specialized assistance in locating a site for this branch that satisfies all our environmental, engineering, location and other needs, and hiring a real estate broker who knows the area and its developments will help sift out more potential sites for sale or lease that are not actively being listed," Watts said.

The library decided to retain professional services after numerous failed attempts to secure a site on its own. The most frustrating was the proposal to build a library in the Rouzan development off Perkins Road. The library waited six years for something to happen and eventually gave up. Officials looked at other property near the development but not owned by the developers, also property near Pennington Biomedical Research Center on the Kenilworth side, the corner of Burbank and Lee, and the corner of Burbank and Ben Hur Drive. Two years after deciding to look elsewhere, nothing materialized.

"As we pursue a site, Sperry Van Ness has the type of knowledge that is helpful – of traffic patterns and how patrons travel in the area, specific market listings and people's routines. If a library is in a route where people run errands, this is a good location for us," Watts said.

The library will not pay a fee to the real estate broker. Instead, commission will be paid by the seller.

A list of possible sites could be made by January.

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