Lakewood Public Library - Main Library

Lakewood Public Library is a mid-sized public library in Lakewood, Ohio, an inner-ring suburb, located west of Cleveland along the shore of Lake Erie. The Library provides service to the City's 56,646* residents at two sites: the Main Library at the corner of Arthur and Detroit Avenues; the Madison Branch on Madison Avenue at Madison Park. Both locations provide a full range of library services to adults and children. The Library is an independent school district library, governed by a board of Trustees and funded by state income and municipal general property taxes. In addition to its primary clientele, Lakewood Public Library serves residents of Cuyahoga County, particularly those on the west side of Cleveland and in several western suburbs. Lakewood Public Library is a member of the Cleveland Area Metropolitan Library System, a multi-type library cooperative.

The opening of the library with its collection of 10,000 volumes on May 19, 1916 was made possible by a grant from the Andrew Carnegie Corporation. In 1921 a branch opened in a rented second-floor dance hall on Madison at Newman Avenue. The current branch library was built in 1929. The Main Library has had expansions and remodelings to the original Carnegie building in 1924, 1956, and 1981. The current collection numbers nearly 360,000 items with circulation surpassing one-and-three-quarter million. See the Building History page.

In 1973 Lakewood became the first public library in Cuyahoga County to join the Ohio College Library Center (now OCLC Online Computer Library Center), a computerized shared cataloging system which is now world-wide. Our first "online cathode ray" terminals provided access to the Columbus, Ohio database. Since that time technology has continued to play a large role in obtaining information and making it accessible to the public. During summer of 1995, Lakewood Public Library became the first library in the area to offer a graphic interface to the World Wide Web to its patrons. Currently, Internet access is provided by the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN) telecommunications network. See Technology Center Services.

In 2004, Lakewood Pubic Library scored 939 points and placed 2nd among the 530 public libraries in the United States serving populations of 50,000-99,000 in Hennen's American Public Library Ratings (HAPLR). In 2003 Lakewood Public Library was ranked number one among 541 public libraries. In fact, the Library's rating score that year was highest of all libraries in any population category. In 2002 Lakewood Public Library was ranked number one among 523 libraries compared. Factors included: amount spent on library materials per person; number of library staff members; number of times materials are borrowed; amount of materials checked out per visit; reference questions answered; library materials borrowed each hour and library visits per hour. See more Library facts.