librarysystems

Cleveland Public Library

Cleveland, OhioCuyahoga CountySchool-district libraryLarge cityFiscal year January 2024 to December 2024

Cleveland Public Library is a school-district public library system based in Cleveland (Cuyahoga County), Ohio, serving a legal service area of 374,557 residents through 28 library buildings and one bookmobile. Of all 8,561 systems profiled nationwide, it ranks ninth for print volumes.

Among profiled systems serving 250,000 to 499,999 residents, it ranks first for operating spending per resident, first for print volumes per resident, first for paid staff per resident and first for library floor space per resident, but ranks fourth-lowest for local government's share of operating revenue. Among profiled systems in Ohio, it ranks first for the electronic share of checkouts, second for number of library buildings, fourth for operating spending and sixth for total visits.

Compare with similar-size systemsSystems serving 250,000 to 499,999

Cleveland against the 122 systems of its size class

size-class median (50th percentile) · spine height = percentile within the class4.00Visitsper resident87th percentile7.46Checkoutsper resident86th percentile$174Spendingper resident99th percentile8.35Print volumesper resident99th percentile13.7Computersper 10,000 people90th percentile43.2Open hoursper outlet a week30th percentile14.3Staff (FTE)per 10,000 people99th percentile
Gold tick: size-class medianVisits per resident4.0087th pct.Checkouts per resident7.4686th pct.Spending per resident$17499th pct.Print volumes per resident8.3599th pct.Computers per 10,000 people13.790th pct.Open hours per outlet a week43.230th pct.Staff (FTE) per 10,000 people14.399th pct.

How the measures and percentiles are calculated

Cleveland, building by building

The 28 buildings cover 974,222 square feet in total, 2.60 square feet per resident against a median of 0.46 for the size class. The largest building is Cleveland Public Library at 529,204 square feet; the smallest is Garden Valley Branch Library at 3,500. The longest hours, 48 a week, are shared by 27 buildings.

BuildingTypeTownHours a weekFloor area, sq ft
Cleveland Public LibraryCentral libraryCleveland48529,204
Addison BranchBranchCleveland488,000
Brooklyn Branch LibraryBranchCleveland485,500
Carnegie West Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4828,600
Collinwood Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4815,800
East 131st St. Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4815,800
Eastman Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4811,400
Fleet Branch LibraryBranchCleveland489,000
Fulton Branch LibraryBranchCleveland488,600
Garden Valley Branch LibraryBranchCleveland483,500
Glenville Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4813,100
Harvard-Lee Branch LibraryBranchCleveland488,700
Hough Branch LibraryBranchCleveland487,676
Jefferson Branch LibraryBranchCleveland487,420
Langston Hughes BranchBranchCleveland488,400
Lorain Branch LibraryBranchCleveland488,400
Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4828,900
Memorial-Nottingham Branch LibraryBranchCleveland48147,200
Mt Pleasant Branch LibraryBranchCleveland487,200
Rice Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4814,000
Rockport Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4811,185
South Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4812,305
South Brooklyn Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4810,300
Sterling Branch LibraryBranchCleveland486,500
Union Branch LibraryBranchCleveland489,200
Walz Branch LibraryBranchCleveland19,600
West Park Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4813,432
Woodland Branch LibraryBranchCleveland4815,300
Cleveland Public LibraryBookmobileCleveland13

Cleveland in numbers, FY 2024

Visits
1,498,276
Physical checkouts
2,795,337
…of children's materials
394,088
Electronic checkouts
3,043,028
…of e-books
1,699,898
…of e-audio
1,153,817
Registered users
302,029
Print volumes
3,127,982
Audio items (physical)
66,033
Video items (physical)
179,853
Public computers
514
Public service hours, all outlets
65,198
Paid staff (full-time equivalent)
536.8
Operating spending
$65.1 million
…on books and other materials
$7.1 million
Overdue fines on print items
not charged

Where Cleveland gets its operating money

Operating revenue came to $72.5 million, or $193.58 per resident. The local-government share sits 6 percentage points above the combined share for the 248 profiled systems in Ohio. No federal operating revenue was reported.

This system54%37%All profiled systems in Ohio48%43%
This system54%37%All profiled systems in Ohio48%43%
  • Local government
  • State
  • Federal
  • Other (fines, fees, gifts, grants)

Cleveland since FY 2019

Visits were 37% below the FY 2019 count of 2.4 million (size-class median: −30%). Physical checkouts moved 41% down over the same span.

FY 2019 = 100406080100FY 2019FY 2023FY 2024
FY 2019 = 100406080100FY 2019FY 2023FY 2024
  • Visits
  • Physical checkouts

Nearest in size within Ohio

All profiled systems in Ohio

Closest in size nationwide

Of these six systems, one records more visits per resident than this one. The highest checkout rate in the group belongs to Douglas County Libraries in Colorado.

SystemBased inResidentsVisits per residentCheckouts per residentSpending per resident
Allen County Public LibraryFort Wayne, IN385,4104.448.37$95.43
Douglas County LibrariesCastle Rock, CO383,9113.659.77$87.76
Akron-Summit Cnty Public LibraryAkron, OH381,6483.838.80$81.66
Davis County LibraryFarmington, UT373,2071.907.01$23.52
Mobile Public LibraryMobile, AL371,9842.093.12$30.22
Chesterfield County Public LibraryChesterfield, VA369,9432.405.85$38.24