| Cuyahoga County Public Library | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1922 |
| Location | Greater Cleveland, Ohio |
| Branches | 28 |
| Collection | |
| Size | 2,839,767 [1] |
| Access and use | |
| Circulation | 19 million (FY 2009)[2] |
| Population served | 589,000 |
| Other information | |
| Director | Sari Feldman |
| Website | http://www.cuyahogalibrary.org |
Cuyahoga County Public Library has 28 branches that serve 47 communities in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. It was ranked the number one public library in the United States among libraries serving populations of more than 500,000 by the Hennen's American Public Library Ratings 2010.[3] In 2009, more than 19 million items were borrowed by its 528,449 cardholders, and 7.6 million visits were made to branches.[4]
In May 2006, the Library launched a new website, which Ektron gave its MVP award as the 2006 Best Overall Site in August.[5] The site allows visitors to register online for a new library card, view their accounts and renew items, and apply for library jobs. They can also order tickets for an author series and make contributions to the library's foundation. In May 2006, Cuyahoga County Public Library became the first public library in the nation to provide cardholders with the option of having their library notices delivered via text messaging.[6]
As a member of OhioLINK, a consortium of 85 colleges and universities and the State Library of Ohio, Cuyahoga County Public Library cardholders have direct access to more than 11 million additional items. Also, the SearchOhio consortium among the libraries of Westerville and the county libraries of Cuyahoga, Mahoning, Lucas, Trumbull, Stark, Portage, and Greene allows for direct access to almost 10 million additional items.
Cuyahoga County Public Library has branches in the suburbs of Bay Village, Beachwood, Bedford (Southeast branch), Berea, Brecksville, Brook Park, Brooklyn, Chagrin Falls, Fairview Park, Garfield Heights, Gates Mills, Independence, Maple Heights, Mayfield Village, Middleburg Heights, North Olmsted, North Royalton, Olmsted Falls, Orange, Parma (Parma-Ridge, Parma-Snow, and Parma-South branches), Parma Heights, Richmond Heights (in Richmond Town Square mall), Solon, South Euclid, Strongsville, and Warrensville Heights.
Eight of the library's branches contain homework centers for use by students in grades K-10. Each center is staffed by a coordinator and tutors enrolled in the America Reads program at Cleveland State University and Baldwin-Wallace College. In the 2008–2009 school year, over 12,500 homework sessions were logged. The tenth center opened January 20, 2009 at the North Olmsted branch. The centers are funded through a grant from the Cleveland Foundation.
In 2003, Cuyahoga County Public Library and the Cleveland Public Library collaborated to create the Greater Access Library Card. The card allows customers of either library and the libraries in the CLEVNET network to take out books from both systems without having to carry more than one library card.