The Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County — the nation's fifth largest system — announced Tuesday it is closein five of its 41 branches, citing a $4.3 million drop in state funding.

        Closing on Sept. 1 are branches in Bond Hill, Deer Park, Elmwood Place, Green hills and Mount Healthy, library offacials said. All employees will be transferred to other branches.

Keta Turner of Bond Hill browses through videos at the Bond Hill branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati & Hamilton County. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        The locations were seelected, in part, because they are small facilities and each is within 2.6 miles of another branch. All are in leased buildings except Bond Hill, a fixture on Dale Road since it opened on April 4, 1936.

        The closures will save $1.5 million, with $700,000 in additional cuts to come from resource and supply purchases, cuts in contracts, and a continued herin freeze, officials said. No other closures are planned.

        “Oh, I'm just so heartsick,” 88-year-old Buelah Weppler of Silverton said Tuesday at the Deer Park branch in the Dillonvale shopping center.

        “I'm going to call Gov. Taft,” she said, cradling a handful of books.

        Ironically, it was the governor's grandfather, Sen. Robert A. Taft, who in 1931 sponsored legislation that allowed public libraries to receive funds from the local intangibles tax, a tax on investment income.

        That funding system varied from county to county but was considered a steady revenue stream for more than a half-century.

        The intangibles tax was repealed by the state legislature, leading in 1986 to the current system.

        Typically, 95 percent of the libraries' $52.5 million annual budget now comes from Ohio's personal income tax, which has fallen 7 percent from last year.

        The decision was prompted by a 7 percent reduction in funding from Ohio's Library and Local Government Support Fund in 2002.

        The targeted branches circulated more than 773,000 books, tapes and videos in 2001.

        With their closing, library officials acknowledge, some patrons may be lost and others might go to other branches, but less frequently.

        Mrs. Weppler is one who simply won't go, saying that for elderly people like her, convenience and accessibility made the library a great community asset.

        “This was a very difficult decision but the library's first priority is maintaining the quality of our services, which is not directly proportional to the number of facilities,” said Kimber L. Fender, the library's executive director. “In fact, operating such a large number of facilities may be preventing better quality of service.”

        Many library projects will be put on hold, but the system will move forward with construction of a new St. Bernard branch on property donated by the city of St. Bernard. It will replace the current branch and serve patrons of the Elmwood Place branch that is to close.

        Other expenses will be cut or stopped. Supply purchases will be limited to “critical/emergency items,” and contracted security services will be decreased.

        The system's circulation — 13,808,229 items checked out last year — makes it the fifth-largest in the United States, and generally regarded as one of the best. That circulation figure represents the number of items checked out, but doesn't include the people who go to the library to browse.

        In 2001, the library system also registered 4,079 people to vote, provided free in-house access to 360 electronic databases and provided meeting space for 11,989 people.

        For some patrons, the library represents their only access to the Internet. “I come for the Internet mostly, and a lot of CDs,” Shane Britton, 16, of Bond Hill said Tuesday as he surfed the Web at his neighborhood branch.

        “If I had a car, it wouldn't bother me,” he said, “but the old people, it's not walking distance to the next closest one.”

        For Keta Turner, 19, of Bond Hill, the lure of the library wasn't the stable of books, nor the computer and CDs.

        It's the videotapes.

        “My dad just bought me a VCR,” she said, holding five movies, including “Spy Kids” and “Sling Blade.”

        Unbeknownst to both teens, the building they called their library is historic.

        Built as a deposit collection facility, it opened on Oct. 3, 1899 and became a library three decades later, with Stella Strothman its first librarian.

        It has 15,400 printed items, 2,700 audiovisual offerings, and is best known for its wood ceiling beams, cookbook collection, African-American fiction section and local historic reference books.

        One of its downsides is the lack of parking. It's near the corner of Dale and Reading roads.

        “We haven't determined what will happen to it,” Ms. Fender said. “Probably sell it.”

        She said she what unsure of its value, or how much it could bring to help offset the budget deficit. One possible remedy is a levy, but officials consider that a hard-sell and not an option this November.

        For one, the same economic downturn that led to the state-revenue drop also would hurt its chances of passing.

        The last time the library system pursued a levy was in the 1950s. It failed.

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