John Skrtic has spent a lifetime getting to know the towering, expansive Cleveland Public Library Main Library. He calls it a place of firsts.
Skrtic, CPL’s chief of special projects and collections (and regular Cleveland Magazine contributor), points to the very beginning of the Downtown library as a transformative event in Cleveland.
“It really was, when it opened, sort of a modern marvel,” Skrtic says.
It was the first library of its size with open shelves, inviting readers to fetch books themselves — and, at the start of the next century, it was the first to offer e-books, with the help of Cleveland-based company OverDrive, Skrtic says. It was also Cleveland’s first library that was constructed to be fireproof, without any wood, save for its flagpole.
The building, a $5 million effort designed in Beaux-Arts style by Walker & Weeks, now bears a recently installed historical marker on Superior Avenue to honor its 100th anniversary. Across the street, a new “Library Shop” is open for business next to the Arcade. An event series marking 100 years is underway, bringing in major authors through the end of the year. Families flock to the popular “The Band” interactive robot musician experience on the library’s main floor.
Standing inside the Main Library’s grand staircase, Skrtic points out fossils in the white marble slabs. His tour of the library is thorough: He steps on the roof to show the jogging path around the perimeter, the city skyline peeking above the walls. He highlights the library’s impressive Yiddish bookshelves, its record-breaking chess collection and the wooden desk where Jerry Siegel worked on the very first Superman comic strips. There are highlights, big and small: At one point, he holds a magnifying glass up to a case to better view the second-smallest book in the world. It’s just one millimeter tall.
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In total, there are 11 million items housed here, along with 1.4 million photographs, plus local media collections. It all offers a peek at Cleveland’s past, present and future. CPL recently revamped its TechCentral MakerSpace with new systems like an embroidery machine, recording studio and laser engraver for patrons to use.
“It used to just be, ‘Come in and grab a book,’ but now you can do so much more. The evolving library is about spending more time and being creative,” Skrtic says. “We’re just talking about our next century.”
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