Picture sixteen of Cleveland's sixty-four residents subscribing to a first library here back in 1811. This institution was founded in 1869, but its story begins even earlier: in 1811 sixteen of Cleveland's sixty-four residents subscribed to a first library, sharing rare volumes like the history of Rome, Lives of the English Poets, Goldsmith's Greece, and Don Quixote. In 1867 the Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Dayton Boards of Education petitioned the Ohio General Assembly for authority to levy a tax to maintain free public libraries, permitting boards with populations over 20,000 to levy one-tenth of a mill for each dollar valuation of taxable property.
Today the system you face reported a circulation of 3.5 million items in 2020 and operates not only this Main Library but 27 branches throughout the city, a mobile library, a Public Administration Library in City Hall, and the Ohio Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled. In 2003 the Cleveland Public Library became the location for the Ohio Center for the Book, replacing the State Library of Ohio. This Main Library now anchors 27 branches and a 3.5-million-item circulation, a civic story you can trace back to those first subscribers.