Its budget has been slashed, hours and staff cut, and state decertification will come next week.

Against that backdrop, three groups of supporters sat down together Thursday night to discuss what might be done to secure a better future for the Wareham Free Public Library.

In choosing last year's budget cuts, town officials repeatedly said that cuts would have to be made to non-essential services. On Thursday, the common theme from the members of the Library Board of Trustees, Friends of the Wareham Free Library and the Wareham Library Foundation was the need to get the community active and demonstrate that the library is an essential institution that needs town funding.

After the voters of Wareham overwhelmingly defeated the Proposition 2 1/2 override this past June, the town's appropriation to library was cut by more than half, going from $295,637 in 2013-14 to $125,000 in 2014-15. The town's appropriation to the library in 2012-13 was $423,515.

"Because of the loss of the override we will lose our certification on Nov. 6," said Bethany Gay, chair of the Library Board of Trustees.

This means that the library will not receive any state aid, which accounts for about $20,000 every year. Decertification also means that patrons won't be able to borrow or place holds on books and materials from other libraries, except for Freetown, Somerset and Assonet. Those libraries agreed to work with the Wareham library according to Gay. The library will also not be able to apply for state grants.

"It's not a good position for us to be in," said Denise Medeiros, director of the Wareham Free Public Library.

The library is in this position due to a loss of funding and services. This year, the town is spending $5.68 per capita on the Wareham library, which puts them in the bottom 10 out of the 370 public libraries in Massachusetts, and the lowest among towns with populations above 4,000.

As of 2012, the average spending for libraries by towns within Wareham's population group (15,000 - 24,999) was $35.81 per capita (in 2012 Wareham spent $16.95 per capita), according to the state Board of Library Commissioners.

Those at the meeting discussed ways to reach the community and get residents to vocally support the library. Ideas included everything from reaching out on social media to delivering pamphlets door to door.

The library serves about 400 to 500 people a day. According to President of the Wareham Library Foundation Kerry Mello, the library circulates 26,000 books per staff member. "Our staff is the hardest working staff in all of southeastern Massachusetts," she said.

"I don't think our patrons or the people in the community are able to get their voice out," said Marcia Hickey, a Wareham librarian. "My next door neighbors don't use the public library, but their children and grandchildren do and they're outraged at what's happened."

Due to recent budget cuts, there are now four staff members at the library. That includes Hickey, the longtime children's librarian who had to be moved to the front desk. The library also lost its reference librarian, and therefore, no one is stationed in the computer area.

The Library is now open 21 hours a week, three days a week. One woman at the meeting said there are students who sit outside the library to use the wi-fi network to do homework on days the library is not open.

President of the Friends of the Wareham Library Priscilla Porter said it costs about $200,000 to maintain what the library is currently offering. While Porter and others said that level of service and funding is inadequate, and only accounts for the library being open, not the acquisition of new books or materials, and that $200,000 would be good a minimum amount to receive from the town.

In the five-year budget projection from Town Administrator Derek Sullivan, the town appropriation to the library will increase by roughly $2,000 each year in the future.

The average funding from a town as a percent of a public library's overall budget was 87 percent in fiscal year 2013, according to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Even in the years prior to Wareham's massive budget cuts of fiscal years 2014 and 2015, the town's appropriation hovered around 70 percent.

The idea of a debt exclusion specifically for a library was brought up at the meeting, but Selectman Alan Slavin said debt exclusions are for one-time purchases, such as buying a building, and that a debt exclusion can't fund yearly operations.

As far as re-certification from the state, the library will need to wait a few years, according to Medeiros. The $432,000 requirement from the state Library Commissioners was based on previous years' town funding to the library. If the library receives a lower amount for this year and the next two years, the certification requirement will "reset" to that lower dollar amount after three years.

The Trustees also spoke about the potential for partnerships, such as with Wareham's schools, Council on Aging, or Wareham Community Television, that could help re-establish services at the library.

"The Trustees are open to all possibilities to be able to re-establish services," said Gay.

Any proposal would have to go before the Town Administrator and any lease longer than 10 years would have to go before Town Meeting.

As the meeting came to an end, the mood was positive if not impassioned. Most agreed that town government needs to hear the message that a publicly funded library is essential to Wareham, and they need to hear it from the community.

"If the people want a public library, they need to step up and support it," said Bob Brousseau, treasurer of the Wareham Library Foundation.

The next Library Board of Trustees meeting will be Nov. 20 at 5 p.m. in the library.